TPI Defunct
by Healthcare.gov
Summary: After a failed ONI experiment, Oliver A-019 has been stranded in Remnant for the last 3 years. Now finding himself at Beacon Academy as per Ozpin's Praesidium Initiative, he now has to help bolster a broken and distrustful Team RWBY as well as doubling as Ozpin's agent in the war against Salem, while keeping his past hidden. Cancelled. Rewrite is up under the original title!
1. Chapter 1: Praesidium is Go

**Since I was bored, and I didn't have anything better to do, I'll be kicking off another longer story. This one will be a cross over between Halo and RWBY with some hints of other games, most likely Titanfall (Armour designs, and weapons.) Anyways, welcome to the first chapter of the Praesidium Initiative.**

Needless to say, things were not going good for Team RWBY. Weiss had barely even spoken to Blake after the "incident." She said she'd accept it. No one knows when that's going to happen. Blake has been keeping to herself a lot. She only ever talks when it's about studying or answering a professor's questions in class. Ruby hasn't smiled since the fight. Yang has been going out more lately. Everyone's feeling down. They don't know if they can get up now. JNPR's tried their hardest, but nothing's worked. Nothing is working. That was when Ozpin launched the Praesidium Initiative.

The idea was simple. Take a fifth member, and attach it to a struggling team to help bolster its combat effectiveness and help smooth things over with the members of the team through external help. And so, Headmaster Ozpin called the first assembly of the semester.

* * *

Ruby was feeling down. Her team was practically at each other's throats, and yang had completely disappeared out of classes, Weiss as about to kill Blake, and vise versa. Right now, they were on their way down to the auditorium. Headmaster Ozpin had supposedly started a new program midway through the year, which was weird, but Ruby decided not to question it. Soon enough, her team reached the auditorium. Sighing, she opened the door and made her way to the seats.

Oliver Auburn wasn't exactly READY for all of this. A few days ago, he had just finished up his last, albeit somewhat illegal mercenary job. An investigation on a Mistrali Research facility, put on by the Mistral Secret Service to search for political influence. Either way, it ended in a gunfight that left Oliver with quite a lot of disdain job. And so he left. Mistral allowed him to leave, and they would cover it up as a freak accident. Ollie was still shaken. And he had seen some pretty rough shit as a merc. He met Ozpin two days ago. He offered him a chance. A fresh start. A new leaf. And so there he stood, waiting for his cue.

The crowd went silent as the Headmaster stepped out onto the stage.

"Hello, students of Beacon. It has come to my attention that some teams are underperforming in some areas. Not saying that you are bad teams, it's just that you could use a push in the right direction. A guiding hand to lead you towards your success. And so, we have created the Praesidium Initiative. This program will attach a fifth partner to your teams. They will help provide support and guidance for your team. Keep in mind that they will have more likely have more experience than you. However, don't let this discourage you from making friends with them. They will be with you at least until the end of the semester. The following teams will be receiving fifth members." Ozpin said in his confident and orderly fashion. He then proceeded to go down the list. In her head, Ruby was silently praying that her team wouldn't be selected. A fifth member was the last thing they needed.

"… Team RWBY, you will be paired with Oliver Auburn."

Ruby deflated. Yang just widened her eyes. Weiss scoffed, and Blake just didn't react. She was just wondering if this guy was gonna be like Weiss. After the assembly, the Teams were brought over to meet their new teammates.

* * *

"Ugh, I better like what I see, otherwise God knows what I'll do." Said a disdainful Weiss.

The team made their way down to the stage to meet their new member. Standing there was a man standing there in large armour. It was a shade of charcoal gray, with hints of cobalt. The visor on the man's helmet was a shiny sky blue. There was a rifle on his back, and twin machine pistols strapped to his hips. There was a long combat knife in a sheath on his shoulder, several throwing knives all across his armour, as well as a Machete on his back. Giving a bit of a sigh, Ruby went forwards to introduce herself.

"Hello?"

Ollie turned to face the source of the voice. There stood a girl, a couple feet shorter than him.

"Hey. I assume you're Team RWBY?"

"Yep! I'm Ruby, that's Weiss, there's Blake, and that's my older sister Yang."

"Huh. Well, I'm gonna be riding with you for the next few months. I'm Oliver Auburn," _Though that's not my name._ "I'm your supposed fifth member."

"Then, how about we get back to the dorm then. We can show you around there."

"Copy tha- I mean, sure.

 _Old habits die hard, I guess._

* * *

 **At the Team RWBY dorm.**

"Well, you girls can go ahead with your day. I'll just get everything set up here." Ollie said, setting down his rucksack.

"Ok, we'll leave you to your own devices."

"Have a nice day then girls, I have an orientation this evening so I won't be back at the dorm until sometime after 11."

And so the girls left, leaving Ollie to his own devices. Sighing, he sat down at the desk, and turned on his TacPad on his left arm. The screen let out a blue glow, as the device whirred to life. After making sure no one was within earshot, he began to talk.

"Spartan's Log, Oliver A-019. It's been 3 years since ONI R&D sent me here. Still haven't heard anything, so I just have to assume the mission is FUBAR. I've loosened up a little bit. I got into music more after the New Harvest incident. I've managed to join Beacon Academy. I don't know how, but Headmaster Ozpin let me in, despite the fact that I'm a big ass eye sore for the most part. Hell, only one of my weapons use dust. I somehow haven't run out of ammo yet for the BR55, and the Magnum is going strong. I've moved on to specially made Dust cartridges for the SMGs now. The armour hasn't suffered any irreparable damage." The shoulder plate fell off as he said that. "Fuck. Oliver out."

* * *

 **A few hours later.**

"Well that's what you call a boring orientation." Griped Ollie as he walked out of the assembly hall. Just a speech. A really boring speech. Ozpin did say something about an initiation tomorrow, but he could worry about it later. He didn't know why, but the Headmaster looked like he was really out of it. He would have to look into that Ozpin fellow later. Eventually, he made it back to the dorm. It was 11:30. However, as he made it to the doorway, he heard shouting coming from the inside. A large argument was happening. He couldn't make out much, but her could hear that it was Weiss and Blake. They were yelling about something. He could make out the words "Faunus", "racist", and "degenerate." Deciding that it would be a very bad time to walk in on that he decided to go to the other room to sleep.

Having taken his rucksack with him when he left as to keep anything sensitive away from the girls, he walked into the room 3 doors down. He was pleasantly surprised that it was very well kept. After taking off his bulky Mjolnir Armour piece by piece for the night, the Spartan sat down on the edge of the bed. He would need some time to think about Team RWBY. Maybe he would talk to them tomorrow. Find some indirect way to ask about their argument. Either way, that could wait. He walked down to the orientation stage a picked up the rest of his gear. A few duffel bags full of guns and ammo, his computer stuff, and most importantly, his speakers and guitar. His musical instruments were his most prized possession. He used them as a means to move on from each mission. He may be a Spartan, but he wasn't heartless.

He listened in on the shouting match for a few more minutes, before cleaning his armour and guns and falling into a slow slumber.

 _Tomorrow should be good._ He thought. _This Spartan's got some more fight left in him._

 **(A/N) Well then. I hoped you enjoyed, and if you didn't that's perfectly fine. This was a story conceived out of boredom, but I am hoping to continue this. There will be blades, there will be guns, and there will be blades that are also guns. I'm sorry if this chapter is a little boring, but I'll see if I can improve the next one and make it more exciting. I won't update this one as frequently as my other story (check it out, it's a Fairy Tail x JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fic), but I'm aiming for anytime between bi-weekly to monthly. Anyways, have a nice day, and I will see you later!**


	2. Chapter 2: Spartan A-019

**This isn't a big update or anything, but just a few tidbits of information to help you understand Spartan Oliver A-0319 before Remnant. Enjoy.**

 **Edit 1: Forgot to add something because I SUCK! Plus some nerfing had to be done.**

 _To: ONI Director Serin Osman_

 _From: Hector Briston, Head of ONI R &D._

 _Re: The disappearance of Spartan A-019._

 _Dear Director,_

 _I regret to inform you of the disappearance of ONI Spartan Oliver A-019, in an accident involving the new Rapid Movement and Extraction Packs, otherwise known as Personal Slipspace packs for Codename: Project Peregrine. As one of the test subjects for field-testing, A-019 had run through using it in simulations, as well as a thorough understanding of the technology. Unfortunately, during the first test, the pack appeared to have imploded while A-019 was wearing it. It created a Slipspace rift right around A-019 like intended, but when things died down, he was missing. His recorder signal was missing, and there was no trace of him. As of now, A-019 is still MIA is suspected dead. The top scientists are trying to figure out what happened, so that we can streamline to technology. This better not happen again. That Spartan died a meaningless death, and we need every Spartan we can get._

 _Yours truly,_

 _Hector Briston, Head of ONI R &D_

 _P.S. Attached are some files concerning A-019 that we can send back to whatever family he has, along with an attachment of this email. Spartans aren't heartless. They deserve to know what happened._

* * *

 _File Number #163370_

 _File Subject: Spartan Oliver A-019._

 _Spartan Oliver REDACTED A-019 was born on the planet of Meridian during the height of the insurrection. His family was one of the few that supported the UNSC and thus they were harassed and so young Oliver started studying from home using the Waypoint. He quickly amassed a large amount of knowledge well beyond the average 12 year-old. Keep in mind that he was only 7. When the Covenant attacked Meridian, his family was denied passage off world because they had supported the UNSC, however Oliver snuck onboard the last transport. He spent the next year in an orphanage on Gao, which was still relatively safe from the Covenant and was then spotted by an ONI agent. He was quickly recruited into the Spartan III program's Alpha Battalion and showed his prowess in both combat and intellect. He was taken from the main battalion along with several Spartans to form the infamous Category 2 or "Cat 2" Spartans. ONI's own personal assassins. A-019 and his team performed multiple raids and attacks on both Covenant and Insurrectionists, on worlds such as REDACTED, REDACTED, and even REDACTED for a critical strike against the feared Jackal Skirmishers. A-019 is kept in cryo-sleep in between missions in order to keep him at prime physical condition. This lead to several long terms of inactivity throughout his career. All this culminated on the fated raid on REDACTED **(** **b**_ _ **lack ink all the way through this part)**_ _A-019 was transferred to ONI's R &D division, and is still assigned there. _

_Current Status: Unknown._

 _Total Kill Count: Approx. 10000_

 _Insurrection Kill Count: 5000_

 _Covenant Kill Count: 3000_

 _Misc Kill Count: 1000_

 _Designation: Hyper Lethal Vector._

* * *

 _Medical Records for Spartan A-019_

 _Full Name: Oliver REDACTED_

 _Sex: Male_

 _Age: Currently 15_

 _Blood Type: O+_

 _Birthdate: REDACTED, 2518._

 _IQ: Estimated 160 Approx._

 _Allergies: None._

 _Lethal Diseases Contracted: None._

 _The rest is redacted._

* * *

 _The following is a conversation between Spartan A-019 and Hector Briston, the Head of R &D, during the Project: Peregrine test._

 _Oliver: This is Spartan A-019, I am in position._

 _Briston: Copy that Spartan. You may power on when ready._

 _Oliver: Roger._

 _ **A-019 powers on the pack**_

 _Oliver: Pack is on, prepping for stage 2. Do I have clearance?_

 _Hector: Clearance granted. Whenever you're ready son._

 _Oliver: Stages 2 through 4 are up and running._

 _Head Technician Higgins: Solid copy there Spartan. Everything's looking peachy over here. We are good to go._

 _Oliver: Roger that. Getting into prime position for testing._

 _ **20 minutes pass**_

 _Oliver: Full preparations are in place._

 _Hector: We are ready on our end._

 _Oliver: Copy that, firing in 3… 2… 1…_

 _ **Device goes off**_

 _Oliver: Sir! Something's going on! The pack is going unstable; I can't get through the rift safel-_

 _ **Feed cuts off**_

 _Hector: Spartan? Do you read? Spartan A-019, come in! Higgins, take your men and get down there!_

 _Higgins: Yes sir!_

 _Hector: Bradley! Give me scan of the area! Give me his recorder location!_

 _Communication Officer Bradley: Yes sir! Tracking…_

"…"

 _Bradley: … Nothing sir. He's gone._

 _Hector: Damn. Higgins, see what you can find. The test is a failure. I'm going to be in my quarters writing up the after-action report. Bradley, keep scanning._

 _Bradley: Yes sir._

 _Higgins: He was a good kid Commander. If he's going anywhere I'm sure it's heaven. Or somewhere like that._

 _Hector: I hope so, Higgins. I hope so. Godspeed A-019. Godspeed Oliver._

 **And that wraps it up. Hopefully this provides some more insight on the character! Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3: The Monsters and the Man

**Since I won't be updating this story as often as my other one, I'm gonna shoot this one out really fast along with a potential part two so readers have something to chew on while I ready the next chapter. Hope you like it!**

 _ **To: Hector Briston, Head of ONI R &D**_

 _ **From: Serin Osman, ONI Director**_

 _ **Re: Your Request.**_

 _ **Dear Hector,**_

 _ **After looking at your request of sending A-019's documents to the other Spartans on his fireteam, I unfortunately have to deny your request. We cannot let these documents to be leaked, and the Spartans require focus on the task at hand, and telling them that one of their "brothers" is dead. Move on with testing on drones, we need this pack finished.**_

 _ **Yours truly,**_

 _ **Serin Osman, ONI Director.**_

 **The day of the Initiation.**

In order to continue attending Beacon Academy as a fifth member, Oliver would have to pass an initiation. Professor Ozpin had described the qualifications of the test as "gruelling and challenging, but nothing that most of you can't handle."

The goal was to make it to the opposite end of the Emerald Forest and neutralize the threats located there. Not only would they have to fight their way through the forest, but clear out a Grimm nest on the other side. This particular Grimm Pit had been causing people lots of grief and a few Huntsmen actually lost their lives trying to clear it. There were several large Grimm inside the cave, so the initiatives would be working together regardless of team assignments for the sake of safety. Not that Ollie would need it, of course.

They stood atop a cliff over looking the vast expanse of trees that was the Emerald Forest. The chirps of birds and squeaks of critters filled the air, as if they were oblivious to the chaos that would take place in mere moments. Professor Goodwitch stood at the front, giving a brief explanation.

"Initiates are to be launched into the Emerald Forest, and towards the general direction of the objective. How you come up with your strategy is up to you." She began. Ollie was completely ignoring this. Instead, he patched his Tactical Arm Display, or TacPad, into the launch mechanism, and started hacking. The firewalls were laughable. Some of the easiest he had ever cracked. In a matter of minutes, he had cracked the launch mechanisms. He quickly upped the Dust inputs to the specific pistons needed, and changed the launch angle for better height. As he finished, he caught the end of Goodwitch's speech.

"-And so that will be all from me. And Mr. Auburn please get off your device." She finished, glaring at Oliver.

"Eh, I was finished anyways." He said as he powered the TacPad off. "Are we finished here?"

"We will launch on my mark." She said. "Good luck. 3… 2… 1… Launch."

The other's launch pads went off, but Oliver's stayed still. The Spartan raised his hand, making an L with his left pointer finger and thumb, while tapping away at the TacPad.

"Mr. Auburn! What are you doing?" Glynda asked harshly. She was about to launch him with her telekinesis, when he gave her the thumbs up. He then pressed at button on his TacPad, sending him shooting up into the sky, way farther than all the other initiates. His gray armour sparkled as his energy shields whirred to life. He smirked as he flew past all the other initiate's landing points.

As the ground leapt up to meet him, primed a grenade and chucked at the ground he would land. The ensuing explosion let out a mighty shockwave that he surfed to the ground, which he hit running. His shields flared as shrapnel bounced off of the invisible barrier. Thanks to his hacking, he had been launched to about a kilometer away from his objective. Grabbing his Magnum from its spot in his waist, he loaded a clip of Armour Piercing bullets into it, and felt the satisfying click of the magazine sliding into place. Seeing as he had a little ways to go, the Spartan continued on his way to the Grimm nest.

Back on the cliff, Team RWBY was stunned. That guy had just hacked into piece of Beacon property, catapulted himself far higher than anybody else, and survived. They could only watch as individual Grimm were killed with startling efficiency. When he ran out of bullets, he let the magazine drop, and with practiced ease, slid another clip right into position, racked the slide, and began firing again. When a single Beowolf got too close for comfort, Ollie spun the Magnum around in his hand and brought the handle of the pistol down on the Grimm's head, killing it instantly. A few more stragglers popped out of the woods, but all of them were easily dispatched by single shots to the head, the reports of the Magnum echoing in the now silent forest.

After a bit more walking, the Spartan found himself in front of the mouth to a large cave. There were growls coming from inside, along with several other Grimm noises. Knowing that his Magnum wouldn't have enough force and stopping power, and his Machete wasn't going to cut it, for larger Grimm like Ursai and Tajitsus, he pulled out his extremely modified twin SMGs. After landing here, he was able to replicate the armour piercing rounds of the BR55 and the explosive high-impact rounds of the Magnum, yet it was unable to machine anything close to the caseless 5mm rounds used by the SMGs, so he used literal shards of Dust to get the job done. The SMGs, or The Twin Volts as he liked to call them, could be loaded with any form of Dust, be it raw, or refined. They also transformed into single sided swords that could be put together to form a broadsword. This feature alone took Ollie 6 months to build.

Stepping into the dank, musty cave, Oliver could see red eyes and white masks glaring at him through the darkness. Taking aim with one, and turning the other into a sword, Oliver charged into battle. The raw Dust crystals took large chucks out of Grimm, while several unlucky monsters got too close and had their limbs forcibly removed. The Spartan waded through the cave of Grimm, sword in one hand, SMG in the other, all the monsters that crossed him either hit the ground riddled with holes, or with multiple areas of their bodies no longer attached. And the whole time he was fighting, he was streaming it all through his helmet cam. Showing off? Maybe. Making an example? Definitely. Eventually, Ollie reached the back of the cave. Covered in the black blood of their fallen brethren, the Spartan charged in, with both SMGs blazing.

The rest of the cave was fairly easy to clear, until he reached the final chamber. In the back of the cave was a large King Tajitsu, flanked by several Alpha Beowolves, who were very angry. Deciding it was time to bring out the big guns, Ollie pulled his rifle off of his back. He called it the Messenger. It had multiple firing modes, as well as a bayonet on the end. In the handle of the rifle was a clip of 16 9mm bullets for more low power encounters, while he was equipped with 50 .cal sniper rounds tipped with fire dust loaded in the stock. He also had a regular assault rifle magazine loaded with solid slugs for normal combat. This gun had everything. There was even a grenade launcher. Loading the launcher with a Gravity Dust Grenade, he fired it into the mass of Grimm in front of him, and watched with satisfaction as two of the Alphas disintegrated. This satisfaction he felt was quickly dispelled by the tail of the King Tajitsu, which slammed into his chest with a great force. He heard his shields pop, and then he tasted blood. He hit the ground hard.

 _Dammit! I let my guard down!_ He thought angrily _I really am beginning to slip._

Ollie grabbed for his rifle, only to find the weapon was across the cave, thrown out of his hands with the impact of the tail. His SMGs were also missing. Knowing that he wouldn't last without medical attention, he quickly looked up at his HUD, and inserted a can of biofoam into the injection port in his armour. His liver was ruptured, which was bad as the liver carried bile and dead cells, and three of his ribs were cracked. He felt the liquid polymer enter his abdominal area, and immediately felt better. With the threat of bile filling his body removed, he turned his attention to the big snake. Grabbing his Machete off his back, he ran straight for the beast. The snake tried to whip him again, but this time the Spartan side-stepped the swing, and gave a savage slash to the side of the tail, nearly cutting it clean off. His Mjolnir armour amplified his power and speed by factors of 5, so it was no surprise that the follow up slash completely severed the limb from the monster.

Turning his attention to the twin heads of the snake, he pulled out his Magnum, and swiftly reloaded. The high-powered rounds punched holes in several of the Alpha Beowolves who got too close. Hefting his Machete, he sprinted up to the Taijitsu and slashed once again, this time at its throat. The blade glided across the width of the neck, but it wasn't enough, and was batted back by the other head. Dodging several attacks, from the Grimm, Oliver jumped over to where his rifle was and scooped it up. In a situation like this, he would've preferred his SMGs, which were unfortunately sitting somewhere on the far side of the room, but this would do. Pulling back the bolt, he opened fire using his assault rounds, punching holes through several of the Alphas before having to reload. The wolves were tanky bastards though, and one forced its way up to the front through the cone of bullets. It gave a powerful overhead swipe, shattering the stone where the Spartan had stood. The wolf Grimm followed up with a sideswipe, which Ollie blocked with his forearm. The shields took most of the hit, but he still grunted with effort as he forced the Alpha back and hosed it with the Messenger.

Looking at his motion tracker, he could see several other Beowolves sneaking into the cavern. He quickly emptied his magazine into one of the last Alphas, and dropped his gun to raise his arms in a guard against the angry monster in front of him. Giving a grunt of annoyance, he punched the wolf in the head, swept its legs out from under it, and stomped hard on its throat. Leaping forwards, he jumped and smashed his knee into an unlucky Grimm who happened to be in front. The Spartan landed directly behind it, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to the heads of three Grimm at the same time, and then ending the trio with a series of blows. The rest of the normal Grimm fell easy enough, with swift punches and kicks breaking their bones as they flew across the cavern in crippled heaps. The only things left were a few Alphas and the King Taijitsu. Deciding to forgo the motion of grabbing his rifle, Ollie drew his Machete once again and ran headlong into the group of monsters. He slid right between the first of the beasts… while bisecting it. He could hear the two halves of the monster hit the ground. The next one he spun around, and delivered a backhand slash that killed the monster instantly. The last one he just stabbed straight through.

The last target was the snake. He ran around it, running up (what was left) of its tail and up to the white head, which he promptly shot several times through the head with the last of his Magnum rounds. As the head started to fall, he leapt for the other head, jamming his Machete into the left of the black head. The black head started to thrash around, but the Spartan held his grip. He pulled out one of his smaller combat knives from his boot area and stabbed the beast over and over and over. After a solid 30 seconds of thrashing and consequent stabbing, the second head hit the ground. Sighing, Ollie collected his weapons and causally stepped out of the cave. And to quote one of his favourite bands: "It's nice to get a breath of fresh air after that."

He saw the other initiates break through the tree line. He just waved.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

 **Later.**

Back at the RWBY dorm, the girls were completely dumbfounded. This guy had just cleared out a Grimm nest that was revealed to be designated as a Class A nest meant for full teams to handle. They didn't really speak to much as he walked right in and threw two hooks directly into the ceiling and hang a hammock from it. Ollie just looked over at the girls with a bit of confusion, before slowly releasing the latches and seals on his Mjolnir armour and taking it off piece by piece. The girls just sat there in silence.

 _Maybe they'll be more energetic tomorrow._ He thought, or at least, he hoped.

 **Specs for Oliver A-019's armour.**

 **A-019 has chosen this following set of armour.**

 **Operator Helmet (Reach variant)**

 **UA Chestplate MULTI-THREAT Variant.**

 **TacPad gauntlets.**

 **FJ/PARA Shoulder pads and kneepads.**

 **Visor is tinted Blue.**

 **(A/N) Well, I hoped you enjoyed it. If you didn't that's ok, and I'll see you all later.**

 **And this is the gear that Oliver has:**

 **BR55 rifle.**

 **Modified SMGs, or "The Volts"**

 **Custom Multipurpose Rifle, "the Messenger"**

 **Standard Issue Magnum.**

 **Self Sharpening Machete.**

 **Several Combat Knives.**

 **Standard Energy Shielding.**


	4. Chapter 4: A Secret and A Brawl

**So I decided it would be best to update this story as soon as possible, so here it is. The next chapter of the Praesidium Initiative. Enjoy!**

It was the next day. Ollie got up early in the morning, like he always had the past decade and a half. All the other's were asleep so he decided to leave them be and go out for a morning stroll. He slid off of his hammock that hung from the ceiling and landed with a soft, almost inaudible thump. Slipping on a hoodie and pulling on some pants, he walked out the door. On the way out, he slipped his Magnum into his belt, along with a couple clips of ammo. He then noticed that one of the bunks was empty, namely, Blake's.

Walking down through the halls and out onto the foyer Ollie stepped outside and into the crisp morning air. The sunrise had the skies painted several shades of red and orange, and gave the Spartan a somewhat peaceful feeling he had not felt in a long time. He decided to go for his typical morning jog. A quick 10km warm-up, 50 push ups, and 50 sit-ups, though decided to forgo the chin-ups. After sit-ups, he decided to hit the firing range. He did have his Magnum with him, and he could always machine some more rounds in the workshop and black powder was easy for him to make.

Finding the room labelled "Firing Range" Ollie walked in and grabbed his Magnum from his belt. He brought the firearm to bear and started firing away. All of them went straight through the bullseye, except one, which was off by about a nanometre.

"Shit, looks like I'll have to try again."

He smirked with satisfaction as he got it on the second try.

* * *

Blake Belladonna had been having trouble sleeping. She felt like everything was weighing on her. First the arguments with Weiss over the White Fang, and Torchwick, and now having a potentially racist, super strong new fifth teammate, she wasn't feeling like sleeping at all. So she got out of bed early, and decided that today would be a nice day to take a comforting walk. She walked by the firing range and heard several loud gunshots from the room. As she started walking again, the door opened and out walked Oliver Auburn, her new teammate.

"Oh, hey Blake. I know we haven't been properly introduced or anything, but I wondering if I could have a chat with you." He said in a disturbingly flat voice.

Blake gulped.

"What is it?" She asked shakily.

"Is everything alright with your team?" He asked.

Okay, she wasn't expecting that, but she'll roll with it.

"Yeah! Everything is fine. Why do you ask?" She said with a bit too much mock enthusiasm.

"In my line of work, reading people is key, so I need to know. Is everything all right? Ozpin's filled me in on all of the Torchwick drama that's happened, and it isn't pretty. Are you holding up fine?"

Blake gave off a bit of a sigh. There was no holding anything back now.

"No, things aren't going well. Everyone's been acting so despondent. Weiss refuses to talk to me except for class stuff, Yang hasn't been around at all. Ruby has been taking everything the hardest. She hates seeing her friends fight, and we're trying to keep everything to a minimum, but she isn't improving."

"I see. Anything else I should know?"

"Can I tell you a secret? Only Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with Professor Ozpin know."

"Sure, what is it?"

"But can you keep it?"

"I've kept so many secrets, my brain might as well be a vault. Go ahead."

"I- I was a member of the White Fang. I left a while ago, but that doesn't change the fact that-"

It was at this point that Ollie shushed her. "None of that matters now, you are who you are, and they are what they choose to be. Did you choose to be a freedom fighter for all Faunus everywhere? Yes. But did you choose to be a bloodthirsty murderer? No."

This put her a bit at ease. "It still doesn't change the fact that I killed people. Weiss hates me for it. My organization killed dozens of members of her family. They committed daily acts of violence against her family and company."

Her teammate just gave her a calculating look, then responded.

"But do you feel remorse?"

"…Yes."

"Then that's all that matters. The White Fang are terrorists, but that doesn't mean they can't turn back. You are living proof of that."

She visibly relaxed.

"But can I ask you a question now?"

"What is it? Fire away." He said, masking the concern in his voice. _She better not have been ruffling through my stuff._

"What is your opinion of the Faunus?"

 _Good,_ Thought Oliver. _This one's easy._

"I don't really think much of them, but I don't think that much of humans either. We're all living creatures, right? We are all fundamentally the same. You just have cat ears, and we don't. What's the real difference? It's stupid. Really goddamn stupid. All in all, Faunus are cool. I've met some really nice guys, and some assholes, but then again, almost all my human interactions are the same. None of it matters really. It's all about you as an individual, not as a race or as a whole."

Blake let out the last of her worries in one big sigh of relief.

Oliver just smiled. "We should get back to the dorm before the other's worry or jump to conclusions." He said.

"Yeah, let's."

And for the first time in weeks, Blake smiled.

* * *

Right before Ruby left to look for Blake, she walked in the door with Ollie, and she was smiling. That was the first time Ruby had seen her do that in a while. The very sight of it brought the spring back into her step. Ollie smirked. All in a day's work.

Class was uneventful, as always. The only fun part was sparring. The arena was set, and one by one, the combatants stepped up to take the stage. Some lasted longer than others, until the last one. Team fights. 4 people would challenge another 4, and there would be a large test of teamwork, fighting style, and combat display. However, today would be different. In the rotation today was the school bully team, Team CRDL. To the stronger teams, they were mostly pushovers, but they could hit you hard if you were unprepared. And today, they had their eyes set on someone to hit.

"OI! Tin-man! We challenge you! Get your ass down here so we can kick it!" Yelled Cardin, the leader of the team.

Ollie just frowned and leaned back in his chair. Blake just looked across at him and shook her head. He had his armour on, but he only had his Magnum on him. He held fast.

"What, you super soldiers cowards or something? I bet you all you special commandos are all pussies, with no skills." He sneered. That was it. He would not have stupid arrogant assholes like him slander the name of his brothers and sisters who had died for him and humanity.

He rose from his chair and nodded at Glynda who just opened the doors for him. He walked out onto the floor saying nothing. He cracked his knuckles menacingly.

"The fight shall be between Team CRDL, who is currently #5 on the standings, and Oliver Auburn of Team RWBY, sitting at #3 on the standings. The battle will commence in 3… 2… 1… FIGHT!"

The four fighters leapt forwards at the Spartan. _Idiots._

Oliver rolled to the side and caught the first guy, Dove Bronzewing by the leg and threw him into the ground. Cardin himself took a swing with his mace, which was easily dodged and countered with a jab to the face. Armoured fist met face as a hard crack was heard, followed by a thump as Cardin's mace hit the ground. Sky Lark tried to come in with a dashing slash of his Halberd, but was also dodged.

 _His footwork is sloppy. He's on the cusp of tripping over himself._

Pulling out his Magnum, he fired all six shots into Sky's back at point-blank range, pummelling his Aura into near nothingness. Russell Thrush, the supposed "fast guy" of the team charged forwards in a reckless dash, before having his legs swept out from underneath him and thrown backwards, only without his daggers.

"Did you really think you were the only one who was good with knives?" Said the Spartan, flipping the stolen weapons in his hands. Ollie charged forwards at speeds upwards of 40 kph. The first slash knocked the recently reclaimed mace out of Cardin's hands, followed by a flurry of slashes and a vicious kick that took him out of the battle. Dove had recovered by now and took a slash at the Spartan, who tanked the blow with his shields, and scoffing when the shield meter displayed it at only 80% integrity. _No power in his swing. He's acting out of desperation._

He easily caught his next swing, and wrested the weapon out of his hands and smacked him up the head with the handle of the blade. Dove threw a pitiful right hook, which was blocked. He kept punching and kicking, but Oliver blocked all of his attacks.

"You call that a punch? This is a punch." And he was sent flying.

Realizing that all his teammates were down, Russell scrambled for and grabbed one of his daggers, and blasted a stream of fire dust right at the Spartan, engulfing him. The blaze filled up half the arena, burning everything. Sensing that the heat around the occupant was too high, Ollie's Mjolnir suit vented coolant to counteract the fire washing against his shields. Russell had a smug look on his face when he saw his "aura" steadily drop, until he saw a silhouette of a man walking through the fire. Out of the inferno walked Oliver Auburn, a glowing shield around him.

He rushed forwards, punching Russell hard in the gut. The blow would've knocked him out of the fight, but Ollie threw another punch, aimed right at his jaw. The powered punch connected, and it sent Russell flying back several feet. Finally, the soldier grabbed his Magnum from its place on his waist and dropped the empty magazine while sliding in a new one. Lining up the final shot, he pulled the trigger. The single shot impacted Russell right between his eyes, shattering the last of his Aura. Sighing, Ollie holstered his pistol and just walked right out the door. He winced a little at the burns he had sustained. _It's nothing compared to plasma._

* * *

Back in the dorm, he started to dress his burn wounds. He wrapped the bandages around the sensitive areas and applied some burn cream. As he was applying his bandages, Team RWBY walked in. It was then they had never realized what he looked like without his armour on. His skin was ghost white, as if he had barely seen the light of day. He had short brown hair, and he had the beginnings of a small beard growing. But what caught them off-guard were his eyes. A dull blue. As if there was no life in him. His irises looked… broken. As if they had been torn apart then put back together. There were long lines of discoloured skin that went up and down his arms. Looking at him, he seemed… broken. That's when they noticed his burn wounds.

"Hey, why are you burnt? Your Aura should've blocked that, or at least healed it by now." Asked Weiss, looking over the man suspiciously.

"Oh, it's nothing. I've had way worse." _Like being gutted by an Elite with an energy sword._

The girls just looked at him worriedly, before carrying on with their activities. While they did what they did, Ollie did a mental scan of the girls of Team RWBY.

 _They are obviously suspicious of me now. I gotta keep things under wraps until things die down. I also have to talk to them, seeing as they don't really know me yet. I got off smoothly with Blake, and she seems to be feeling a little better now. She and Weiss seemed to have the biggest disagreements, so maybe I'll talk to her next. She does seem to be the most difficult of the four, and the most untrusting. I avoid performing any UNSC procedures around her. When the time comes, I'll tell them. Now just isn't the right time. Maybe in the future. Maybe._

And so he just settled down and played guitar. He played for a good long while, letting the notes wash away the hard thoughts of the day.

 **That took me too long. I'll be updating my other story soon, but I'll try to update this one bi-weekly. Anyways, have a wonderful rest of your life!**


	5. Chapter 5: Concerning What's Below

**So, a lot of people enjoy this story. This did better than I initially expected. Thank you for all the support!**

 **Also, someone out there thinks this is a standard "OC suffers from Isekaitis (or gets teleported to another world) fic." And I quote "Seems like every other fic, where random oc gets teleported there."**

 **And you are right. For now, at least. I have a spin in mind, so hang tight and please don't send me a crack-filled response now. Also, I'm not attacking you or criticizing you, I'm simply acknowledging your review. You have a say in my story, so I thought I'd give you my response.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Like every other day, Oliver "Auburn" A-019 got out of bed at the crack of dawn. Slipping on his hoodie, he went out for his morning walk. He walked down to the town, taking in the sights of a half-awake Vale Central. In the wee hours of the morning, people were starting to shake thoughts of sleep of their heads. Looking at the dawn brought him back to the old days, when first landed here.

* * *

 **3 Years Earlier.**

Oliver A-019 looked out on the dawn. A dawn of a new world. After a fruitless day of trying to re-establish contact with the UNSC, the lone Spartan decided it would be best to get his objectives in order.

Acquire intel on his new surroundings.

Acquire proper supplies for a long-term stranding.

Get home.

Ever since he had landed, his suit was picking up strange signals, very similar to that of an UNSC Radio Bandwidth, but also different. It however, wasn't too different to the direct comms systems used by Spartan teams, so he could patch himself in. Tracking the signal, he walked through the thick forest, rifle in hand. As he climbed the last hill and parted the brambles, he looked up at the source of the signal. Beacon Tower. This was his first look at the world of Remnant.

* * *

 **Present Day.**

Everything was fine now. It had only taken him a month to learn the ins and outs of Remnant and its society. As a Spartan trained for infiltration and information gathering, it was his forte. He walked down the streets to a café that a lot of people frequented. It was open early, so it was naturally popular among the workers of the city. Ordering a coffee, Ollie sat down at a table at the back of the room. Normally he would've sat at the coffee bar or a table somewhere else, but he felt something… off. He scanned the occupants of the room.

 _5 overworked baristas, several construction workers, and a few office workers on the morning shift._

As he finished his coffee and walked out the of café, but he still felt like he was being watched. That "off" feeling followed him down three side streets and across several major intersections. It wasn't until he got to the air pads to get back up to Beacon that he found the source of the feeling. Every single street camera was on. And they were all trained on him. Little black orbs the size of grapefruits were all looking at him. However, being a Spartan and a resident of Remnant for three years now, and being a Mercenary for two of them, he had some fail safes. Pulling out his scroll, he activated an app with no official name, but codenamed by the ones who used it as Poltergeist. All one had to do was provide a picture of themselves to Poltergeist's database, and with a click of a button, shuts off all surveillance devices in a kilometre-wide radius on the first pulse. It then replaces the footage with generated stock footage with the subject cut out, and any traces of you from the past hour are completely erased. It was fantastic for quick escapes and covering up operations. Even so, its popularity was confined to a select few who knew the programmer personally. Ollie had the privilege of being one of them

Soon, all the red lights when dark, and Ollie continued on his way to Beacon.

* * *

 **An undisclosed location.**

"Argh! That little bastard! He shut off the cams!" Yelled a man with a thick Atlesian accent. He frantically searched through the saved footage that he had, only to find it all replaced with stock footage. Arthur Watts was, by all means, a brilliant man, but he had nothing on the hackers of the Vale and Mistrali underground. Still seething, Watts tossed his keyboard off to the side and growled.

"Now, now Arthur. No need to get angry. We'll find out more about him soon enough." Said a calm feminine voice. Begrudgingly, Watts responded with a "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

 **Beacon Tower.**

Ozpin leaned back in his chair. He had been observing Oliver Auburn for the last hour or so, and all of a sudden, the cams shut off abruptly, and all footage of him disappeared. He was caught off guard for a little bit until he regained his composure. This young man clearly possessed the means to stay undetected and had access to advanced technology. Ozpin would ponder this for a bit more until he decided that what he had in mind would have to wait a little bit longer.

* * *

 **During the day.**

Oliver spent the rest of the day on high alert. He periodically activated Poltergeist to hack and purge all footage of him when he was outside of class and even went as far as to check every camera he could hack. It was at this moment that he found something. Something both extremely disturbing, yet extremely intriguing. Something he had never seen before, yet also something that would play a major part in his life at Beacon.

* * *

 **That night.**

Ollie got out of bed. It was 2:00 AM. Perfect for this incursion. Pulling on his Mjolnir, and being sure to activate Poltergeist, he silently made his way to Beacon Tower. Knowing that infiltrations would become one of the largest things he would undertake as a Mercenary, he had made his own cloaking kit early on. Using light reflecting coating that could be used in tandem with his energy shields, he had effectively created his own adaptive camouflage. Quietly picking the lock on the door to the tower, he made his way towards the elevator.

 _Several million Lien technology, 10 Lien lock._ He thought.

Once in the elevator, the computer asked him "Which floor would you like to visit?"

He responded with "Autumn's Rest."

This phrase triggered the elevator to shoot downwards. Far below the infrastructure of Beacon Tower was a long hallway. It was dimly lit, which allowed the Adaptive Camo to do its work. Silently creeping along the edge of the hallway, he made his way to the end of the long chamber. At the end was a… machine. Inside what appeared to be some form of cryo pod was a girl with dark skin and short brown hair, close to Oliver's hair colour. There was a large spiderweb-like mark on half of her face. Suddenly, he heard the ding of the elevator. Ducking back into the shadows, he saw Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch walk out of the lift and make their way down to the machine. Along with them were a couple of technicians.

"Tony? How is she." Asks Ozpin.

The man named Tony walked over to the display. "Same as yesterday. Vitals are strong, but still no noticeable improvement.

Ozpin sighed. "Keep her as is Tony. Martin, increase the amount of lighting dust to the insulator. We'll keep her on ice for the time being."

Martin walked over to a generator panel on the side of the hall and punched in a few commands, and suddenly, it appeared as if the room brightened up. By consequence, this caused the adaptive camouflage to shimmer a bit. This gave him away.

"Mister Auburn, there is no need to hide, I've known you were there from the start," Ozpin stated flatly. "Please show yourself."

Seeing as he couldn't hide, Oliver deactivated his cloak and stepped out into the light.

"Care to explain, _Headmaster?_ " He asked, gesturing to the girl in cryo.

Ozpin sighed, while Glynda just looked shocked.

"Then I suggest we go upstairs and pull up some chairs, as we may be here a while."

 **Chapter Five DONE! I hoped you enjoyed it and I will be updating A Tail of the Bizarre next. Also, I would like to shout out a couple authors under the names kmph2001 and TheDidactsHand. They both have a really great writing style, and kpmh2001's one story, The Men from Onyx, which is also a RWBY and Halo crossover, is really well written. The aforementioned author also recommended a program that I will attempt to learn to use for the sake of a better story cover. TheDidactsHand has written several great shorter stories all centered around the best game franchise of all time, Halo. Both of these author's stories are really well done and I suggest reading them. Anyways, check them out and have a nice day/week/year!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Larger Cause

**Back at it again, with the next chapter. Anyone who thinks I own the series included in this story is stupid. Now that I've said that, I never have to say it again. Boom. That is called pre-emptive laziness. Learn from it young one. Enjoy.**

There was cold, hard silence for a solid minute in Ozpin's office before the said Headmaster attempted to brake the ice.

"How has your evening go-" He said before being cut off.

"Drop the niceties Ozpin. Give a good reason to not kick your ass from here to Graceland, and I **WON'T** shoot you out of sheer suspicion." Said the Spartan. He was normally quite calm and collected, but when he needed to, or felt like it, he would let loose.

Ozpin gave a sigh. "I suppose a full explanation is in order."

"Yes. It. Is. Spill it. Why are you keeping a girl in cryo-sleep in a basement below your million Lien office? Some experiment?"

"I assume you are familiar with the tale of the Four Maidens?" Asked Ozpin.

"The one with the magic old man and the four magical girls who taught him the joys of living? Yeah."

"That's… one way to put it. That girl you saw down there was Amber. She is the current Fall Maiden."

"…"

"…"

"So you're the type of guy who likes kidnapping AND sucking out soul power? Neat."

"I did not harm her. She was attacked, by agents of the darkness. Agents of _Her._ Salem. The Queen of the Grimm. I assume you know who she is? She seeks to wipe all sentient life off the face of the planet, or at least enslave us all. To accomplish this, she seeks out two key powers. The powers of the Maidens, demonstrated by the attack on young Amber, and the power of the Relics. There are four Relics, the Relic of Knowledge, the Relic of Choice, the Relic of Destruction, and the Relic of Creation. These all line up with a corresponding Maiden, and all grant immense power to those who understand them." He began.

"I guess she wants the Maidens and the Relics to make her conquest easier? Seems likely, considering she needs to fulfill her "evil villain" complex and steal some W.M.D." Remarked Oliver. "This does pose us a big threat though, considering that these Relics aren't just laying around, I presume?"

"You are correct. The there are Four Kingdoms, each with their own Huntsman Schools, and there are four Maidens with four corresponding Relics. Each school guards their own Relic. There's one in Beacon."

Ollie began to relax a little, and then began to tense up at something else. If there was a Relic at Beacon, then that means Salem would have her eyes set on this very school. One thing he did loosen up on was the fact that Amber was being held in cryo-sleep for good intentions. Even though he was a product of illegal experimentation, he wasn't about to let others befall his fate. Trapped in the life of a killing machine. Hearing the truth that the girl was being protected here made things a lot easier to swallow.

"Huh. Continue. What's going on with Salem?"

Ozpin stood up and walked over to the window.

"She has been getting more aggressive. Her protégés and followers are growing in both numbers and power. Attacking more settlements, planting spies, waiting for the moment to strike. She is on the cusp of making a move, but we don't know when. And the even bigger problem is, we can't counter it. And now she's attacked a Maiden. It was only thanks to the efforts of a friend that she managed to survive. We would be a lot better off with more people, but I'm afraid we can't expand without threat of discovery." Ozpin said with a dire tone. Ollie, however, heard something in his tone.

"What are you implying?"

Glynda, who was sitting quietly the whole time, shot Ozpin a glare that said: _You can't be thinking this._

He sent her a glance that said: _Yes I am, and I will do it._

"I'm asking you to join us. You are clearly a talented man and we could use your skills. You said you spent two years as a mercenary, dancing in the area between white and black? Show me that you can do it here, this time for good."

Oliver just sat back, and thought for a moment. "Give me a moment."

"Fair enough. We will be holding a meeting in the morning. You have until the to decide. Just remember that you could help us save our world. Thank you for understanding Mr. Auburn." Ozpin said calmly.

Ollie got up and walked the door. "Sure. See you tomorrow Mr. McCormick."

"What?"

"Nothing."

Ollie stopped right in front of the elevator. "You're still hiding something. Something big."

Ozpin just sighed for the umpteenth time. "Was it that easy to tell? I'm starting to slip."

"It's all in the posture, Ozpin, It's all in the posture. I've spent two years working with criminals and crooks. I know what a lying man looks like."

"I suppose I have to tell you now."

"Wait, I got it. You created the Maidens. Thanks to your 'humble boon' you started this big chain of events. You are the old man in that story. If you weren't, why would you know about this? Who would've started it? The easy answer is you."

"You are the only one to have figured that out. Yes, I am the old man in that story. I gave the Maiden their powers for the sole purpose of bettering mankind, but it seems that one of them broke their oath along the way."

"It appears so, otherwise, you wouldn't be in this situation."

"Yes."

By now, it was close to 5 in the morning, and Ollie would need to get back to his dorm before the girls woke up.

"When's your meeting?" He asked.

"11:00 AM Today. You'll be there?"

"Yes I will, and I'll give you my answer. See you then, old man."

"Yes. Farewell, Mr. Auburn. Glynda, get the others on the line. They'll want to know about this."

* * *

 **Later.**

Professor Goodwitch had allowed Oliver to skip 11:00 classes for the meeting. When he got up to the office, Ozpin was already on the line with his associates. Glynda and Professor Oobleck were standing by was well.

"Well Ozpin? We need someone for the more… unsavoury operations, and I'm sure your students would have several second thoughts about killing, and we are already needed where we are right now." Asked James Ironwood, the head of the Atlas Military.

"I already have someone in mind, James. In fact, he and I had a chat last night. There he is now."

"Oh no… Don't tell me you roped another one of your students into this?"

"Don't worry. I've spoken to him, and I believe he's right for the job."

Suddenly, a new voice joined. "And I accept."

Out of the elevator walked Oliver, in full armour and fully armed. Ozpin just grinned.

"Is that so?"

"I quote, 'they have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, but, bear-like, I must fight the course.' If I don't stay and fight, what soldier would I be? I can't run from this. I'm in."

Ironwood just shook his head.

"I recognize you! You did mercenary work that directly impeded with the work of the Atlas Military. You actually put three of my men in hospital for lethal bullet wounds. They almost died from blood loss!" He said. "Oz, you can't let him in! He's a criminal, and I need to arrest him. He was on the watch list for 3 weeks in a row until he was put on the backburner. He's a threat to security an-"

"Blah, blah, blah. If I had shot those men a millimetre to either side of the initial wound, THEN they would've died of blood loss. Almost with certainty. I positioned the shot just right so it would take them out of the fight without killing them. Also, the objective of the job was the same thing as Atlas's objective, which was to catch a crook with a big bounty, and they didn't want me to muscle in on their score."

"Impossible! An Atlesian Soldier's motives are not as dark and disma-"

Ollie pushed a button on his TacPad, and played a short video clip for Ironwood.

There were a group of soldiers, all wearing Atlas uniforms, all cornering the camera holder. The first guy stepped forwards.

"Ay, Merc. This is our score. That "Huntsman Killer" you've been tracking? He belongs to us and that sweet, bounty is ours. Do yourself a favour and bug off would you?"

The video cut off from there.

"You we're saying?" The Spartan said, with a smug grin plastered on his face beneath his helmet.

Ironwood just sulked. This prompted a satisfied smile from Glynda. Ozpin looked over at the faces in the other monitors, and then over to Oobleck, who gave a slight nod.

"That settles is then. Oliver Auburn, welcome to the team."

* * *

 **And there's the first of many major plot points. Hope you enjoyed! Also, if you wanted something similar to RWBY, I highly suggest you watch or read My Hero Academia, because I'm weeb trash of the bottom tier. Anyways, have fun with your lives, which is something I don't have.**

 **Also, if you didn't catch it (which I guarantee no one will) I quoted Shakespeare. It's the quote Ollie says when he accepts the invitation. It's from a really short scene where MacBeth kills a kid.**


	7. Chapter 7: Born From Spite

**New Chapter! This is going to be more backstory focused. Hope you enjoy!**

 **Several Years Ago, ONI Sword Base, Reach. 2552.**

 _Noble Six walked up to his squad leader, Carter A-259._

" _What is it Six?" Asked Carter._

" _I was wondering. Were there any Spartans in Alpha like me? Lone Wolf operators?" Asked the Spartan, voice tinged with curiosity._

" _There were a couple. But there was only one on your calibre." He responded._

" _Who was he?"_

" _His name was Oliver A-019. The Wraith. He spent so much time behind enemy lines; he was almost non-existent from… anything. Just talk of his name was enough to make any Insurrectionist or Covie shudder. Of course, these were only rumours, but most of them were true. He would enter a bustling stronghold leave a ghost town. And the fact that he's still active is a testament to his skill. Noble is a team, but he's on his own. And yet, his kill count his higher than Jun's, Emile's, and mine put together. He's like you, a hyper-lethal vector."_

 _Noble Six stood in shock. This was an operator on his level, and maybe even ABOVE it._

" _Where is he now?"_

" _They saddled him with some Cat IIs from Beta and Gamma, which I hear is out of basic training now. Apparently there are talks of him heading the upcoming Omega and Theta companies, if everything goes well."_

 _It was at this point Emile A-239 walked over._

" _Ollie? That guy was a monster. He always found new and creative ways to kill someone. Whether it is with a musty old book, or a charging cable, he could kill a man. And despite all this, he was the most talkative out of all of us." He said. "Hey, Jun! Remember that joke Ollie made about Jaclyn's Mom? Brutal!"_

" _Yeah I do, she spent the next three hours trying to bust his balls, but then settled for mine." The sniper responded, with a tinge of pain on his face._

" _He was always the one to cheer us up." Said Carter, with a rare grin. "We botch up a mission? He was there to pick us up."_

 _Six just nodded._

" _Alright. I want Noble ready and on deck in 5. We're making for Halsey's Evac ship."_

" _Yes, Sir!"_

" _My Balls still ache."_

" _SHUT UP!"_

* * *

 **Remnant, present day.**

Ollie walked down the hall to the dorms. It was immediately after the little meeting with Ozpin's team. Sighing, he opened the door to the dorms. Everyone else was off on lunch-break, so he could spend an hour alone, and in peace. He played guitar for a little bit, the familiar riff filling the room, and spent the rest of the hour tuning up his armour. Being worth more than an entire UNSC Frigate, it required constant maintenance. Screws loose, a detached wire, clogged filters, things like that.

It was then, that Weiss Schnee walked in. She looked upon him with disdain before speaking.

"Alright, I'm gonna get this out of the way, I don't like you. At all. You come off as crass, unprofessional, and arrogant." She said with hatred lining her voice.

"Really? If you want to be honest with me, then I'll be honest with you. I see an untrusting,overly confident, _VERY_ arrogant spoiled little brat, who's been broken a few too many times."

"How dare you?!"

"No, how dare YOU? You just walked up to me, scoffed and told me how much you hated me… *sigh* Ok, we just started out on the wrong foot. I'm sorry, so can you tell me what's wrong?"

Weiss sighed as well, before exploding again.

"What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG? First I get saddled with a CHILDISH EXCUSE of a leader, and just as I'm beginning to adjust to that, one of my teammates reveals that she was a part of an organization that _killed_ so many of my friends and family?! And the 'leader' backs the **traitor** up! And now I get a incompetent fifth teammate that I never wanted! You tell me what's wrong!"

"Ugh. Please calm down. Do you know what's wrong? Your attitude. You think Blake's a traitor? In my mind, you're the traitor for being so cold and untrusting of your teammates. What will you do if Blake's life is in danger, and you're the only one who can save her? You just refusing her apologies and giving her nothing but grief and hatred is almost like putting a gun up to her head. You call Ruby a pitiful leader? I've seen 50 year olds who've had years of experience flub through engagements by the skin of their teeth, while that girl is the reason some of you are still alive. Don't you see that? You should reconsider where you stand, because your ideals have no ground." He said, with a cold decisiveness. Every word was thought out, and all of them punched clean holes through her argument.

Weiss just stood her ground, like the stubborn girl she was.

"Well do you know how I felt? I've been to over 20 funerals at the age of 17 because of that girl's degenerate friends! Do you know what it's like to have your family killed off before you? To be truly alone? Do you even have feelings, you ROBOT?!" She yelled, louder than before.

Ollie sighed again. "Yes, I do know what loneliness is like. More so than anything."

* * *

 **ONI Sword Base, Reach. 2552.**

" _Sir, about Oliver A-019, what type of training did he do? I know all Category IIs had tough training, but he must've had something else happening." Asked Noble Six. They were all sitting in the back of a cramped Warthog, considering all the other troop carriers we're either running on fumes, up at the front, or burning wrecks._

" _He had some really intense training. He and a few others were put through R.A.I.D. Training, which stands for Revolutionary Attack Infiltration and Defense Training. During Cat II training, they would be pulled away after breakfast, and one time they even disappeared for a whole month." Carter replied._

" _What happened?" Asked Six._

" _Emile?"_

 _The aforementioned Spartan spoke up. "I heard this from my buddy Kyle, who was in the same program, afterwards, but they locked them up in Midnight."_

 _Six was dumbfounded. "Midnight? As in Midnight Facility?"_

" _Yep. They locked us all up in there for a few days to help bolster our mental states, but they locked Ollie in there for a whole month. Upside down, in a straightjacket with a small crate of rations to last 31 days. They spent the first hour getting out of the straightjacket, the next fifteen days pacing, and next five days slumped over, almost comatose, and the last few days crying. Midnight has that effect on people. You just get this sense of dread. You just sit there. And wait for nothing. It's not like living alone in the wilderness, because out there, you at least have some companionship in the form of nature. In Midnight, you sit in silence. There's nothing except for the thick slab of heavy metal between you and another dark hallway filled with more slabs of metal." Emile continued._

" _Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day." Interjected Jun._

" _Exactly." Carter added finally._

" _A whole month? I was only in there for a week." Said Six._

" _Which was why he came out changed. Everything he did had a steely, stiff feeling to it. He had transformed into the cold killing machine that ONI needed. The last thing I remember about him was when we all got on the Pelican to get up to the frigate, he just stayed behind. No jokes, just a salute and a wave. A sort of calmness was emanating from around him, like he had resigned to his fate. But even his salutes said 'everything will be alright.' And so that was the last we saw of him." Said Carter sadly. "It was almost a tragedy."_

 _Six nodded. "Well let's focus on the mission. Sir, the Evac Ship is about five minutes away. Your orders?"_

 _Carter physically loosened up, while his voice stiffened. "We go in hard and fast. Clear out any Covies you see. Jun, give us overwatch, Emile, you and Six go in with me. Those bastards are as good as dead."_

" _Yes, Sir!"_

* * *

 **Remnant, Present Day.**

"I know the feeling better than anyone."

"Well, have you ever had to watch as your family members are buried one after the other?"

"My whole family is dead. Both my biological one, and my family in the military. All killed by marauders from afar. My home was razed, and I watched as it was burned to the ground. I have waded through _blood_ to get to where I am today. And you think that watching a few family members die one at a time is bad? Imagine watching your whole life burn down before you, with the corpses of everyone you knew as fuel for the flames. You think you see through me? Well I see through you." He said, his sharp tongue slashing any attempt or chance at a comeback.

"I.. u-uh…" Weiss tried to get something out, but she was at an utter loss for words. "Well, there is no way that something like that could've happened to you, when everything could've been broadcasted live on the CCT! We could've sent help!" She bit back, slightly dishevelled.

"And let the whole world see what an 'amazing' job the 'mighty' kingdoms were doing protecting its people? Yeah right. Because if they did, the whole world would stand by and watch as their glass houses shattered around them." Ollie said, with a hint of malice tracing his voice.

This took Weiss aback, but the Spartan kept pushing.

"So you sit around in your big mansions and secret hideaways, safe from the terrors of the world, while you send soldiers in mission after mission, and sure, you win. But you can be damn sure that not everyone makes it out."

More silence.

"They were only 15 when they were sent in. Children. Highly trained, to be sure, but children. They went in with only one thing on their mind. The objective. They destroyed what needed to be destroyed, but evac never came. And so, they were picked off. One after the other. Body after body fell, as bullets flew every which way, and explosions rocked the landscape. They were only 15, and yet the top brass sent them in, as they deemed it a 'high-causality mission.' But I think of it as a Orwellian way to describe a death sentence. Do you understand?"

And for the first time, Weiss didn't have anything to say, no matter how hard she tried.

"I-I understand." She sputtered out.

"Good. Next time, try to take everything into account before judging someone. You aren't the whiny bitch like you make yourself out to be. You are a warrior, and a huntress. Remember that." Ollie finished, before returning to his work.

"W-What are you implying?" She asked.

"All I'm saying is to give Blake a chance. She is living proof that even broken people can change. As a huntress, prejudice is something you can't have. Got it?"

"Y-yes."

"Alright. I think we just got off on the wrong foot. But I really think you have the potential to be a really good person. You just have to live up that, and I think in time we can both come to an understanding about our different points of view as well. For now, let's just focus of giving Blake a chance. She's been through some rough shit as well, so just… have some empathy."

 _That's rich coming from me, the unstoppable murder machine._ Thought Ollie darkly.

"Okay." Responded Weiss. "I'm still getting an off feeling about you, but I'll give Blake a chance. I gave Ruby a chance, so I can give Blake one as well. Thank you."

She gave a small smile and a nod before walking out of the dorm.

 _Well, lunchtime is over. Time for another three hours of Academics that I've already learned._ Thought the Spartan as he suited back up and followed the heiress out of the dorm and back into the cruel world.

* * *

 **Alright! Another Chapter finished. This story has hit just over 30 followers now, and I want to thank you all for coming in to read my stories. I know this has been thrown around a lot on this site, but I really didn't expect this to be so popular. I know a lot of people like RWBY and Halo, but I really only expected a few of you to tune in every so often. You are spending time that could be used on something else to read my stories, and to me, that is the greatest honour I could ever receive. Thank you. I plan on continuing this story for a while, and thanks to the support I'm receiving, those plans are solidified even more so now. I'll see you all in the next chapter, and have a wonderful rest of your life.**

 **Editor's/BETA's notes: Psihopatul here, yeah first chapter I started working on with awesome fellow Fan Fic Author here on FFN, there still might be some grammatical errors as I am not native English speaker but I've tried to help out with typos here and there as well as writing few suggestions for HC.G.  
If you have suggestions for improving my work I am happy to listen to how I can improve myself as a BETA reader. Thank you in advance and See you good people in the next chapter with side of Good Huntings! **


	8. Chapter 8: One Bullet at a Time

**Being educated takes up a lot of time, that's for sure. Sorry for the late update, I'm just a bit overwhelmed at the moment. The other stories will have their updates soon. Either way, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

 **Below Beacon Academy. One week later.**

Oliver A-019 was still getting to know the current situation on Remnant. He was waiting on Ozpin and his crew to arrive, but so far, he had just been standing in the dark hallway alone, with nothing but the whirrs of machinery and Amber's cryo-pod keeping him company. He took this time to think a little bit. _Maybe I was a bit too harsh on Weiss._ He thought, before quickly overruling it. _No, she needed a wake up call. Either way, I still need to talk to the others. They still seem a bit... off. Maybe I'll-_ Ollie's train of thought was cut off as the ding of the elevator cut through the veil of silence draped across the hallway. Out of the lift walked Ozpin, Glynda, and a man wearing a black cloak and hefting a big sword that Ozpin had referred to as "Qrow" in their talks, along with the engineers.

"You sure took your merry time, Ozpin." Said the Spartan, walking towards the group.

"I had to wait for our guest here to arrive sober." He said, gesturing towards Qrow, who merely waved.

"Hey there, tin man." He said, with a bit of a slur.

"Oz, are you sure this guy's combat ready? He's a bit on the tipsy side if you ask me." Oliver pointed out, examining Qrow's drunken demeanour.

"Believe me, Qrow's a brilliant Huntsman, and this is as sober as you'll get him." Ozpin responded, to which Glynda sighed.

"Alright, why am I here then?" Oliver asked. "I may be spec-ops, but I still need my sleep y'know? Man cannot survive on coffee alone."

"Yes, yes, but I believe we have a lead. Consider this a trial run, to see how you operate." Ozpin began.

"Well? What is it?"

"Your mission is to break into and secure a facility for information. All we know is that it's currently in Vale's red light district. You said you were a seasoned mercenary? Show us your skills, and collect the information yourself. Normally we would send Qrow or one of his subordinates, but they currently have their hands full."

"I understand, I'll have it done as soon as possible." Oliver said.

"I know you will. You're dismissed. However, I still expect you to keep this from the other students here, and also to keep up with your schoolwork. While you may be our black-ops operative, you are still my student, so you must juggle your responsibilities. Got it?" Ordered Ozpin.

"Yes, sir." The Spartan said, snapping a loose salute.

"Good luck, Mr. Auburn. You may leave now." Ozpin finished with a smile, to which Ollie gave another salute before walking out the door.

However, before stepping into the threshold of the elevator, he stopped.

"Ozpin?"

"Yes, Mr. Auburn?"

"What's the permission?" Ollie asked solemnly.

While this question was quite vague, both men understood what it meant.

"You have permission to go lethal."

"Good to know, Oz. I'll have that job done."

Then he left.

* * *

Being a mercenary, one must have a significant web of contacts and connections, and while this may seem like a daunting task, it can be quite easy if one knows where to look. Around 70 years ago, a group of thieves were running from the scene of a crime. Knowing the authorities would have a hard time finding where they would be below ground, they knew that they would be safe in the sewers. What they didn't expect, was to get lost. After wandering around, they stumbled across a big cavern, that was practically untouched and buried deep beneath all of Vale. There were absolutely no Grimm inhabiting it, and it had a large expanse of mostly flat ground. The banditos brought the information back their boss, who passed it onto the other crime dons. Eventually, a pact was forged. While above ground, they may be enemies, below ground, they would be allies. And so, the Vale Underground was born. Within the first few months, the crime lords and their henchmen began laying foundations for shantytowns and shacks. Stakes were claimed, buildings were built, and all of this went under the Vale Security's radar. And so, the weeks became months, the months became years, and eventually, the Vale Underground became a sprawling subterranean city with its out districts, inhabitants, and even its own set of laws, despite the people who lived there. It was a criminal's haven. It was a place where one could not steal, but not be stolen from, yet thieves were alway welcome. A place where you cannot kill, yet murderers and psychopaths walk the streets like any other. So many call it a headquarters, while others call it home. It was built off of one simple rule: "I won't hurt you, and you won't hurt me. I'll help you, and you'll help me."

Soon, other passages were opened up, and every year, criminals, vagabonds, and masterminds alike make the journey to the Vale Underground, either to visit friends or colleagues, buy exotic goods, or to curry favour and improve one's personal platform. Whatever you were there for, you could do it in the Vale Underground. So as a mercenary, it was essential to have a few friends in the neighborhood. Whenever Ollie needed something, he always came down here. He navigated the maze of shantytowns and several story high towers built out of scrap, and made his way to one specific part of the East Side Slums. Being light on his feet, the Spartan walked down a dark alleyway, and turned to a door at the far end of the alley. He rapped on the scrap-metal door, and there was a pitter-patter of footsteps along with a familiar sound of firearm being loaded. On the other end of the door, came a voice.

"Password?" The voice asked, with a raspy accent.

Reciting the passphrase of "Is that any way to greet an old friend?" The voice responded.

"Well what would bring a friend to the slums?"

"Well you have to kiss the misfits to appreciate them sometimes." Ollie finished, and heard the locks on the other side of the door being unlocked. After a solid 20 seconds of unlocking, the door swung open to reveal the form of a lanky man about 6 feet tall. He wore a simple white t-shirt that was decorated with a myriad of coffee stains.

"Ollie!"

"Roberto!"

Standing in front of the Spartan was Roberto, or "Robbo", the East Side's finest hacker, and the programmer of the Poltergeist two had met a year back on a infiltration job, and instantly bonded over their shared love of music, and computers. Ever since he was a kid, Roberto had always been infatuated with the inner workings of the computer. He hacked his first Scroll when he was 8, and his first Desktop when he was 12. Growing up in the East Side Slums, he didn't have any access to education, so the kid taught himself. He hacked Scrolls, and then pillaged them of any information he could find, burying his face in books and screens, taking in every little bit of knowledge hidden within. Eventually, he offered up his services as a top hacker, being skilled enough to bypass the firewalls of the Atlas Military Archives. He was Oliver's backdoor man. If he needed something, Roberto could get his hands on it. Intel, new prototypes, backdoor codes, anything.

Roberto asked the first question, while ushering Ollie inside.

"What brings you to the colourful East Side, my man?" Asked the hacker. Every since Oliver had met him, his upbeat and cheerful personality rarely ever diminished.

"I got a new job." He simply replied.

"Really? I thought you left contracting and the works behind, after the… Arkados Job."

"Yeah, but I'm on official contract with some big people."

"Who?"

"Oh, you know… a politician, and the Headmaster of Beacon Academy."

This knocked the coffee stains out of Roberto's shirt as he stood straight up.

"You're shitting me." He said.

"Nope. I'm on official contract with one of the most powerful people on the planet."

"Damn… what's the payout?" Roberto asked tentatively.

"An official freaking pardon, and maybe getting into the good graces of some other big guys."

"By the Brothers… This is your chance! You can get yourself out of this, and live it out! You could be the one that makes it!" He said excitedly. "What's the job?"

"I'm on contract for a info hit on a hold in the red light district. I need your help on pinpointing the location and getting me in."

"Okay… what's the license?"

"Lethal."

"Alright. Let's get started then, shall we?"

Over the next six hours, the two slaved away on the job plan. While Roberto cracked through firewall after firewall, digging through hours of camera footage with one of Poltergeist's sister systems, WillowWisp. WillowWisp was developed by Roberto and his hacker friends as a way of monitoring and scavenging footage. Even though they were hackers, they also doubled as info gatherers, sometimes even working in conjunction with Shade Academy's Hunter's Brigades to help collect info on Grimm Nests and Terrorist hideaways. This helped them immensely as the found what they were looking for. A White Fang safehouse hidden away in a warehouse a kilometre outside of the Vale Slums. It was under heavy guard for most of the day, and, according to the guard rotations, was preparing for something big. However, before they could hit this, there was the official stronghold that Ozpin had told him about. A White Fang surveillance and communication site that used a vast array of sensors to help find possible targets of interest. If Ollie took this out, he would essentially cut off all communication for the White Fang inside of the Greater Vale Area. With this information, he called Ozpin.

* * *

 **Ozpin's Office. One week after the meeting.**

"Mr. Auburn. I assume you have something to report?" Asked Headmaster Ozpin as he looked at the monitor with sleepy eyes. It was currently 4 in the morning, and Ozpin usually got up at 6.

"Yes. I have the location of the enemy hold you told me about. It's on the very edge of the red light district, about 15 kilometres from Beacon. I have the info." The Spartan reported, while loading a pistol magazine with fresh bullets.

"Good work, Oliver. I suppose I don't need to say this, but you have permission to engage. Good luck." He said.

All Oliver replied with was "Luck is no substitute for skill." Before he cut the feed. "Copy that. Auburn out."

 **Back in Roberto's Hideout.**

Stepping away from the monitor, Ollie strapped the last loaded pistol magazineto his belt before turning to his friend.

"We are cleared. You got the plan?" He asked, to which Roberto nodded.

"You'll enter from the 3rd floor window. There should be a backup Camera Hub in a room behind a reinforced door. If you can hack that, I can get access to all of the intel, as well as control over their comms network. While I work my magic from here, you can get to work clearing the place out. There shouldn't be that much resistance, but the rotations are frequent, which means you'll have to deal with them one after the other. I'll keep surveillance on the area with Willow as well. I've got your back." Roberto explained, laying out the plan for him on a sheet of paper.

"Copy that, I'll be at the location in about 20 minutes, so sit tight in the easy chair. Give me an update every five or so minutes." Oliver ordered, to which Roberto nodded. Slinking out of the alley way, Ollie activated his camouflage and made his way to the nearest city exit. Climbing back up into the tunnels, he crawled up and out of a manhole cover and into the night. Eventually, he reached the base. It was a 8 storey tall building, boarded up, but still had faint signs of use, as there was a faint whirring coming from the doorway.

 _Turrets and Entry-Denial devices. Clever…_ Though Ollie as he rappelled up the side of the building from the back, rendering the security devices useless. Making his way up to the 3rd floor, he quiet spoke to Roberto.

"I'm at the target site, give me eyes on hostiles. I have 3 in my line of vision." He whispered as he peeked in through the window. While Roberto checked to see if he could spot any by using outside cameras, Ollie attached a silencer to his M6 Magnum, and slid a new mag into place. Suddenly, his earpiece crackled to life.

"You got nine total hostiles on this floor. Two in front of the camera suite, two at the foot of the stairs, two on active patrol, and three on normal guard duty, rotating every two minutes to cover ground faster." Roberto said, all hints of his joking demeanor overshadowed by a solid tone of professionalism.

"Copy. On entry vector, weapons free." Silently, he pried the first of the boards off of the boarded up windows, and with four quick shots, he popped the three guards and a camera in fast succession. One. Two. Three. Four. All the shots hit home, with the camera popping in a fizzle of sparks, and the three bullets impacting the heads of the White Fang goons, a spray of blood flying from where the projectiles impacted. The Spartan creeped in through the window, and out into the hallway. Hugging the wall, he activated his camouflage. He cut the external speaker feed on his helmet, and whispered into the radio.

"Three hostiles down. On my way to the cam suite." He said, to which Roberto gave a grunt of acknowledgement. Raising his pistol, Ollie took aim again, and squeezed off two more shots, blasting both goons in the head before they could react. However, the thump the bodies made were not as quiet as the silenced gunshots, as a guard turned the corner soon after. As he was about to shout for help, Ollie jumped forwards and sent a powerful Spartan haymaker into the poor mook's jaw, knocking him out cold, quickly grabbing the limp body before it hit the ground. Cautiously looking around, he scouted for guards, and was relieved that there were none in his current vicinity. Knowing that he wouldn't be alone for long, he moved to the reinforced door, and got to work. The lock was a generation old analog lock. An honest to goodness combination lock, which was a smart move, as it couldn't be bypassed by electronic means or hacks. However, Oliver still had yet to find one that could survive a bullet. Opening up the door, inside was a large suite of computer screens and consoles that were all connected to the building's cameras. They had views to all the different floors, as well as a street camera. Pulling out a USB thumb drive, he stuck it into one of the ports.

"All right Robbo, time to rock and roll bud." He said, to which Robbo responded with the sound of furious typing. After about 30 seconds and three dragged bodies later, came the response of "I'm in."

In an instant, Ollie's HUD lit up like a alleyway hangout at 20 past 4. His motion tracker flared with activity, his map lit up with hostile alerts and objectives, and a flood of new information filled his field of view. That's when he noticed the sheer amount of hostiles in the building. The motion tracker lit up every which way, showing almost 50 guards split across the different levels of the base. Of course, 50 people wouldn't be a problem for a Spartan, he could take more than that easily. The only problem would be trying to settle things quietly. Slinking around trying to kill 50 people while trying to stay undetected would prove to be a challenge. Sighing, he slid another magazine into his pistol, checked his surroundings, and got to work.

"Just another day at the office." He muttered.

"Amen, brother. Amen."

Stepping out of the room, he raised his Magnum, sighting a grunt, and lining up the shot. One trigger pull later painted the wall behind him red. Moving forwards, he planted three more shots into his partner before turning on another one in the hall, popping a single shot into his neck. So far, he hadn't been detected, but if he'd been any slower someone would've noticed something. Eventually, he caught sight of the stairwell. There were two guards standing in front.

"Robbo, any nasty surprises around the corner?" He asked, cutting the mic feed on his helmet again.

"There's five more guards at the top of the stairs, in direct sight of the targets. You'd have to take them out too." Came the response.

"Seven guards and only six bullets? I'm good but not that good." Ollie muttered, reloading.

"Eh, I'm sure you'll think of something." Roberto said before cutting the feed. Pulling out from cover, Ollie rushed the pair of grunts, firing one shot into their both of their heads, then moving on to the soldiers at the top of the stairwell. 1. 2. 3. 4. Four bodies hit the ground. Whirling on the last one, he punched him in the gut, causing the goon to double over. Pulling his Machete off of his back, he followed up with a powerful downward strike. That's when a bullet impacted across his shields, causing them to flare. _Dammit! I didn't see that guy! He was hiding in the hallway!_ He angrily thought as he dove behind a wall.

"Looks like were going loud. Robbo, can you shut down any outside surveillance?" Asked the Spartan, holstering his pistol in preference for the Messenger's high stopping power.

"Yeah, give me 5 seconds… Done. You're in the dark." Replied Roberto, who continued to tap away at his keyboard.

Turning the safety off on his rifle, he slid out of cover and put a three-round burst into the soldier that was firing at him, then put it on full-auto and started clearing the building. A crowd started to from outside as the sounds of unfiltered gunshots were heard from inside the building. Loud bangs and even small explosions could be heard outside, yet some people had yet to call the authorities. It was because, most of the people in the crowd were White Fang undercover agents, sent out to scout out potential targets. Pulling weapons out of their belts, they walked inside.

"Uh… dude? Problem." Said Roberto as Oliver cleared the sixth floor.

"What is it Robbo?"

"White Fang slinkers, coming in through the first floor. About 30 of 'em. Looks like their regrouping with the ones on the first and second floors. In total, I'd say about 45 new foes."

"We'll just have to deal with them then." He said, loading a new magazine.

"That's not all. More contacts are about a kilometre away, and it's a big group. About 4 APCs and several smaller trucks, packed to the brim with heat signatures. If you don't get out of there, you're as screwed as a strawberry yoohoo. Plus there's the guys on the seventh and eighth floors. You're sandwiched."

"Looks like I'll have to go all out then." the Spartan calmly said, pulling out his SMGs.

"Heh, that's the Ollie I know."

Rushing the enemies, he blasted all of them in quick succession with his SMGs, gunning them down with shards of Dust. Reloading, he took the time to address the situation on his HUD. He saw the multitude of contacts coming up the stairs. Cautiously moving forwards, Ollie grabbed a fragmentation grenade from his belt, and strung it up to a tripwire, and then hanging it from the ceiling by the pin. That way, the first people to walk through that doorway were about as good as dead, and would buy him some time. He barely had time to run back to cover before the first goon's head popped up from the bottom of the stairwell. Checking his magazines again, he waited for the thunk of the grenade hitting the floor, then the confused shouts, and then the big boom of finality. He spun out from cover and sprayed the survivors with the Volts, then hucked another grenade at them, which took out a huge portion of the group. That's when Roberto yelled into his ear.

"Look out! Anti-armour rifles in the back!" He yelled, but by then, it was already too late, as a AP Round impacted Oliver right in his Solar Plexus, sending him careening backwards and into a wall. His shields flickered. Only at 5% strength as at the last second, the Spartan had directed all shield power to the front, but he was still hurting. He felt a wave of pain wash over him as bullets peppered what was left of his shields, shattering it like glass. He rolled behind a wall while chucking his third and last frag grenade down the hall and into the front runners, thinning their ranks even more.

"Dammit Robbo, I'm running low on options here, bud." He hissed as his shields began to recharge.

"Feed me through your helmet cam." He said, typing furiously once more.

Looking through the helmet cam, Roberto examined the enemy formation, and found that they had one fatal flaw.

"There's a small opening through the group that leads straight to one of the grenadiers. If you hit one of his bandoliers, then the whole group goes up like a big ass firecracker. The Messenger's 50. Cal Fire Dust rounds should also add to the explosion." He advised, to which Oliver pulled out the Messenger, and switched the firing mode to _sniper_. Taking aim, he leaned out from cover, and took a deep breath. Then he pulled the trigger.

KABOOM! The explosion shook the building down to its foundation and concrete dust fluttered down from the ceiling. The assaulting group had been completely annihilated, but now was not the time to rejoice. Ollie could see the White Fang armoured jeeps rolling down the street towards his location at top speed. The explosion had opened up a big hole in the ceiling of the seventh floor, allowing quick access to the top floor, where the information was held. Jumping up through the hole, he quickly dispatched the last few goons guarding the computer suite. Once again blasting open the lock he opened the door and peered inside, checking for any nasty surprises. Feeling confident it was safe, he walked in and started looking through the files on the computer.

The first thing he did was change the password to _bigdinguswashere_ to annoy whoever tried to get in after him, and then he searched the target logs, saving them all onto a USB for Ozpin. He then cut the connection to any comms tower within range, completely severing communication. Finally, he checked the cameras. He saw the trucks, which were only a block away. Uh oh. But one thing caught his eye. In the White Fang warehouse Robbo had found while digging, there are a hotbed of activity. One camera looked right inside. At first, it looked like a run of the mill recruitment rally. That was until Ollie saw who was on stage. Standing there was the notorious Roman Torchwick, the Red Fox of Vale. What was even more troubling was a single female in the crowd. She had a pair of familiar black cat ears, and Oliver knew exactly who this was. Blake Belladonna. He could only watch as she pulled Gambol Shroud from her back and blasted the power systems, cutting off the camera. Pulling back, he quickly regained his composure and copied everything onto a flash drive, then proceeding to delete everything on the computer and replace it with a single file that when opened, launched a form of malware that automatically hacked and pivoted through all of the surrounding electronics, giving Robbo access to all of their info.

"Robbo, what's the fastest route to the Warehouse?" He asked, jumping out of one of the back windows while activating cloaking.

"I'll upload it for you, why?" Came the response.

"Something bad's about to go down, and it's not gonna be pretty."

 **Well, that took a while. I have a Discord server, so join that using this link:** **/dtzzDyB** **and simply remove the brackets around the period. This will allow me to take suggestions and communicate with you all better. Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9: The Breaker

**I've decided to kiss the idea of a consistent update schedule goodbye. Also, JoJo Part 5 anime aired a couple days ago. Still haven't watched it yet.**

* * *

A steady stream of expletives were threatening to spill from Oliver A-019's lips as he sped through the back streets and alleyways. If pop-culture had taught him any lessons, it was that having a wild terrorist chase in a city was never good. Ever. At all. He unslung his BR55 Rifle as he caught sight of a large war-machine clomping through the Vale Industrial District and towards an on-ramp that connected to one of the big highways that connected the various districts of Vale. Uh oh. At max speed, the fastest Spartans could quickly overtake the mech, and Ollie was no exception. The only problem was the fact that running at such fast speeds but a tremendous strain on his body, even with the ceramic-steel bones and all that. Settling at a comfortable speed behind the mech, he started to plan his assault. As of right now, the mech hadn't noticed him, but as soon as he started to open fire, that wouldn't be the case. He caught sight of Yang's bike speeding ahead of him, along with Blake and that one monkey boy they had been talking about and never introduced to him. Knowing the time to act was now, he lined up a shot and squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times, and four times until he had emptied the magazine into the heat exchangers on the back of the mech. Showers of sparks flew as bullets impacted with metal. This caused a falter in the mech's steps giving Ollie a clear angle at the back of the war machine's knees.

"Gotcha."

The three round burst from his BR55 blew open the gears on the back of the robot's leg, sending it toppling over the edge of the bridge.

"Ollie? What are you doing here?" Shouted Blake as she made her way to the edge of the bridge.

"I was in the area." He lied. "Did you call for backup?" He said more speedily than normal, loading a fresh magazine into the stock of the Battle Rifle.

"Yeah. I ringed everyone's scrolls. Help should be here in a few minutes." She replied while reloading the gun mechanism of Gambol Shroud.

"Good, 'cause that thing will only be down for a few minutes. The bullets I put in it only impeded its motor functions, but it's inner systems are still intact." He said briskly.

"Then it's a good thing that help's here."

The two turned to the source of the voice and saw Weiss and Ruby making their way to them, weapons at the ready. Yang also arrived, with a boy with borderline annoying blue hair and mechanic's goggles. It was then that another party arrived. A group of aggravated White Fang thugs showed up and began firing on the group.

"You guys take the big robot, we'll take these mofos." Said the monkey boy, followed by a nod from the guy with the annoying blue hair. Nodding towards her teammates, Yang nodded and jumped down to the floor beneath them, while the others followed suit. Sighing, Ollie dropped down as well.

At the bottom was the combat mech, battered and leaking fuel, but still kicking and very active. With the element of surprise gone, Team RWBY would have to face it head-on. In this situation, Oliver would have very much preferred to have a form of heavy weaponry at his side, like a Railgun or Spartan Laser, or even a few Plasma Grenades. And oh, what he wouldn't give for an Overcharged Plasma Pistol. Despite this, he would have to take this thing down.

Taking the initiative, Oliver sprinted forwards at top speed while pulling the Messenger off of his back and priming the Fire Dust Cannon. The mech responded by bringing its arm up into a guard, covering the cockpit with its bulky arm armour. Firing into the armour plating, all that was left was a pock-mark and some soot from the explosion. There was no significant damage to the plating itself. The mech started open open fire with its primary forms of armament, Dust Cannons, Missile Tubes on the back of the machine itself, and even leaping forwards and slamming into the ground where the Spartan once stood. He fired back at the hulking beast of a robot, but couldn't cause much damage with the amount of weaponry he had on him. The BR55 rounds were ineffective, and the Fire Dust didn't do much but stain the metal with soot. It seemed only kinetic force could affect it at this point. The soft parts and the joints had all be covered up, so he would have to either continue running and dodging or engage in a good old Donnybrook with a 20-foot tall war machine. No thanks. But there was one person who could do something about it. As if on cue, Yang flew out of nowhere and socked the mech in the cockpit, sending it tumbling back. She started to pummel it, holding nothing back. It was clear the that the kiddy gloves were off, and the shotgun gauntlets were on. With blows that could topple trees, she continued to whale away at it. However, everyone could see something was wrong. She was… messy.

 _BLAM BLAM BLAM._

Her fighting style wasn't her usual blend of street brawl moves and master level hand-to-hand techniques, it was just a flurry of uncoordinated blows. She looked angrier than usual, if she gave that mech a chance to strike even once, it could capitalize on the many openings she was giving. At it did. With a swift move of its arm, it smacked Yang right in the head. She flew a good 100 feet before grinding to a slow halt. Deciding that flanking it would be good, Ollie ran around to the back and grabbed his Machete off of his back. There were a few small cracks in the armour from Yang's relentless assault, but there was one big crack in the back of the right leg. One good cut could bring the whole thing down. As he went forward, he didn't expect what happened next. Yang had leaped forwards at a startling rate and smashed into the mech and consequently sending it into Oliver's face. His shields fizzled and popped as the large machine slammed into him. With both the force of Yang's extreme velocity and the force of gravity acting against one man, things weren't going to turn out good. He felt a horrible pain in his right arm as he felt his shoulder pop and twist in a very bad way. He gave a grunt of pain as Yang kept pummeling the thing _while he was under it._

He managed to slip out with several cracked ribs and a horribly dislocated shoulder but still alive. He heard another crunch and saw that Yang had been thrown off again and this time, Blake had stepped up, and when she was about to attack, Weiss jumped in and attacked right before Blake was about to swing her sword. Ruby was somewhere, but she wasn't in sight. Things were going downhill.

 _Dammit!_ He thought. _They're all out of tune with each other! They don't trust each other to get the job done, and are all gonna get each other killed if they don't clean this up!_

Ruby showed up at another moment and gave a devastating slash to the side of the mech… and almost removing Weiss's head from her neck.

"Watch where you're swinging that you dolt!" Weiss angrily growled.

"Well, you watch where you're going!" Ruby bit back, before being slammed with the arm of the robot. She came to a stop to over where Ollie was standing.

"Ollie! What are you doing? Get back in the fi-" She started before she took a glance at his arm.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?! Your arm is-" She was cut off as the man in question jammed the arm back into its socket and giving a grunt of pain.

"I'm fine. Keep your head in the game." He said. "You girls are slipping up. I don't want to have another mech dropped on me, so get your act together! Otherwise, we're all dead. Deader than disco."

That's super dead.

He then got up and gave the others the same warning. "You better start fighting better and together, or we'll all be _crushed_ together!" He yelled as he pulled his rifle off of his back once more, this time adjusting his grip as to not tax his injured supporting arm. This seemed to snap the girls into a sense of temporary teamwork, as they began to fight more cohesively. It wasn't perfect, but they could have a chance to win now. At this point, the mech began to start leaking more oil and was even spewing flames from its exhaust pipes. Seeing his opportunity, Ollie ran up to the metallic beast and jumped and clambered on top of it. Grabbing his pistol he blasted away at the hinges of the hatch, knocking the hatch on the top loose, only to be met with the open barrel of a cane staring right at his face.

"Shit."

He leaned backward just in time to dodge the blazing flare that flew out of the tip of the cane, a wave of heat washing over his shields as the projectile barely missed him by a centimeter. Bringing his pistol to bear, he started to fire directly into the cockpit, putting holes into all of the important electronics and controls, bringing the large mech crashing down.

Out of the wreckage emerged Roman Torchwick, the head of the criminal underground in most of Vale (However, he was pretty much a community hate figure for the residents of the Vale Underground as he never followed any of the rules and no matter how many times they shot at him, he always ended up coming back).

Raising his pistol, Oliver was about to take the shot before Yang beat him to the punch (Get it?). She cocked her arm back and let out a huge blast directed at Torchwick, who was engulfed in the flames from the projectile. Until he emerged unscathed with someone else at his side. She was short. Very short. Somewhere under 5 feet, Ollie would wager. She carried an umbrella about two-thirds of her height that was opened up and was what appeared to have blocked the blast. Her eyes were two different colours, Brown and Pink, and matched her hair which was the same colour scheme. Not wanting to let them get away, Yang went for another powerful blow, but when her fist connected, Torchwick and the Umbrella Lady shattered into a bunch of tiny fragments which quickly fizzled out of existence. Everyone started looking around, but it was of no use. They were gone.

"DAMMIT!" Yang gave out a frustrated yell and smashed her fist into the ground in a fit of rage, turning the concrete into a big crater.

"Calm down." Muttered Weiss, "We wouldn't have caught them anyway."

"You don't know that!" Yang yelled back.

"Well with that lady's semblance, of course, we couldn't have." She said snarkily. At this point, she was begging for another shouting match. Things were about to boil over. Yang was visibly shaking at this point. _Oh no._

Soon, the ladies burst out into a full on argument with insults so bad that they couldn't be written in this story. Deciding he should step in, walked over to the arguing pair.

"Girls, calm down."

The shouting continued.

"Calm down."

It seemed to get louder.

"CALM DOWN." He said.

"SHUT. UP!"

There was an ear splitting boom as Yang spun around and threw a hard haymaker aimed right at Ollie's temple. And he blocked it. His right arm held up in a shaking guard, with Yang's fist buried in his forearm. Yang's eyes widened in shock as she immediately removed her arm. She could see that from the way Ollie's arm looked, that it was broken. She immediately tried to apologize but was quickly silenced by the armoured man.

"Get some rest. You all need to cool down."

Then he quickly turned around and walked off, leaving the members of Team RWBY to stand in shock.

* * *

 **Later.**

"It doesn't matter what the bones look like, all that matters is can you fix it?" Asked an agitated Oliver. "Your semblance is physical reversal, right?"

The doctor examining his wounds gave a shaky nod. "But your bones are cased in ceramics and metals! I do not know if I can repair the grafted substances."

"Well, you gotta try, right doc? I can handle the other stuff, all that matters is can you fix the bone?"

"...Yes, though I can't guarantee it won't be painful."

"Relax doc. I can take it."

Outside, Yang could hear the conversation between the two men.

 _Covered in ceramics and metals?_ She thought. _And I broke that? Did I hit him that hard?_

Back inside, the doc put his hand over the broken bones, and they both watched as the bones reformed themselves in their proper fashion, with Oliver wincing as the bone fragments shifted uncomfortably under his skin. Eventually, the bones returned to their original positions in his arm.

"Thanks, doc. I'll handle the rest."

"No problem. Let me know if there's anything else wrong with your arm. I still don't understand why your Aura didn't block the hit." The doctor responded.

"It was a hard hit. Aura was already low anyways. I got run over."

"Sounds like it was a rough day."

"It was. I'll be seeing you around doc."

"You too. Stay safe."

Yang took a step back from the door as the conversation finished. The door opened and out walked Oliver Auburn, without his signature armour, showing off his myriad of scars to the world.

"Oh, hey Yang." He said in a casual tone. "What brings you here. You hurt?"

"No, it's just that I wanted to say sorry for punching you. I shouldn't have lashed out like that."

"Yeah, and you ran me over with a mech too. It's not very fun having to shove your arm back into its socket." He said in his always smooth tone while rolling his left shoulder a bit.

"Hey, I'm here to apologize, not to be messed with, got it?" She said angrily.

"That was never my intention." He replied flatly. "I just wanted to get the point across that you need to be more careful when you fight. If that were someone else, or an innocent bystander, you wouldn't be standing here, you would be in a cell." His tone suddenly turned dark.

"I'm aware that I can be a little… aggressive during a fight." She began. "But I have some control! I'm not a dog that needs to be kept on a leash!" As she said that her jawline clenched up in a sense of rising anger.

"Just you saying that kinda betrays everything you just said. I can see you're already getting mad." He said in his irritating flat tone.

Yang gave another angry growl and her eyes started to flash red. Seeing as it would be best to have her let out some of her energy, Oliver said "Follow me. We can talk somewhere else."

Yang seemed to calm down a little and followed the man down the hall and to the armoury.

"Give me a sec." He said as he pulled on his skin tight bodysuit and started to fit the individual parts of his armour on piece by piece. Eventually, he was clad in his full Mjolnir armour set.

"Alright, let's go."

They walked out into the sparring grounds. As they made their way over to the middle, Yang noticed the air around Oliver start to glow as it shone with a yellow-ish glow and his armour made several beeping noises. He then turned to face her.

"Alright, you seemed a bit angry, so we're here to fix that. Let it all out. Take it all out on me." He said simply.

"Excuse me, what? You want me to hit you?" She asked, a bit confused.

"What, did you want me to sound it out for you slowly? Hit. Me. Come on! I'll be fine this time. You're a huntress, so show me what you've got and HIT ME!" He shouted.

Taking in a deep breath, Yang raised her fists and got into a fighter's stance. Cocking her arm back, she threw a hard hook into his helmet, knocking him off balance. She then proceeded to run through the basic sets of moves and eventually just started whaling away on the Spartan while he kept shouting encouragements such as "Is that all you've got?" or "You can do better than that!" There would be a pause every so often while Ollie's suit began to beep a bit and the yellow barrier recharged, but other than that it was a non-stop flurry of punches.

So she kept punching. Every time she hit him, he would be pushed back a little bit, then take another step forward and be beat back again. The yellow aura was beginning to weaken, but Ollie showed no intentions of quitting. So Yang pushed harder. Punch after punch after punch. They were at it for a good 30 minutes until eventually, the yellow barrier snapped and Yang stopped, feeling quite a bit more tired than she was at the beginning.

"You feeling a bit more relaxed now?" Asked a panting and equally as spent Oliver.

"Yeah." She got out.

"Good. Ready to talk now?"

"Yes, just give me a breather."

After 10 minutes of standing around, Ollie broke the silence.

"So what's wrong?"

"You want the kid friendly version or the straight forwards version?" She asked.

"Preferably the one with less bullshit." He shot back.

"Fair enough."

Making their way over to the bench, they both sat down.

"With everything going on, the stress of everything was really getting to me." Yang began, taking sips out of a water bottle. "I started staying out later. I ended up going to a bar at least nightly at one point. Mainly to get away from the shouting matches that were going on whenever we were awake. I obviously stuck around for classes and meals and all that stuff, but one glass of the hard stuff just seemed to make everything go away sometimes. The way everyone was fighting, and all the secrets, it just… unhinged me. You saw it. I got angrier than I usually did, and used way too much force than needed."

Oliver took off his helmet and look at her with knowing eyes. "You know, I knew a guy who was like that at one point. He wasn't doing too good at this point in his life…"

* * *

 **Several years ago. UNSC Marder.**

 _Walking into the ship's bar, Oliver A-019 looked around and found the familiar face he was looking for._

" _Ezra."_

" _Ollie."_

 _Ezra A-156 was the big man in Fireteam Vertigo, and the one in the thick of the battle. Codenamed "Balrog" he was the muscle of the team. The guy who would go in and completely decimate everyone in his path with his modified Gravity Hammer and Shotguns. He needed to be this fierce for the missions they went on. It was in the fireteam name. "The stakes of these missions are dizzyingly high."_

" _I thought I'd find you here. Again." Said the annoyed squad leader as he sat himself down next to Ezra. "What's the problem, Ez?"_

" _Promise you won't laugh like everyone else?" He said, taking a sip from what appeared to be watered down vodka._

" _Dude, we're sixteen. Like it or not, we're still kids. I won't laugh. And you shouldn't be drinking." Ollie said._

" _Ah, to hell with that. I'm a Spartan and I'm sixteen. I could die at any moment. I should be allowed to enjoy myself." Ezra shot back, downing the rest of his glass._

" _Yeah, yeah. I just don't want you blasting me instead of the enemy, ok? Now tell me what's wrong."_

 _There was a moment of silence until Ezra responded._

" _It's the killing. Oh god, the killing. I'm a teenager, and all I end up doing is kill. I know we're soldiers. The indomitable force of the battlefield. The Spartans. I know that if I don't put a bullet in this guy, he'll kill a lot of innocent people. I get that. But all we do is kill the killers." He said solemnly. "And most of them aren't even the Covenant! Hell, the whole Covenant War is over! They're just other humans with other points of view. They are radical ones, but killing them makes us no better than them. It just… hurts."_

 _Ollie slowly nodded. Ezra began talking again. "If we just kill off everyone who doesn't agree, then aren't we the murderers now? How can we be certain that we're on the right side?"_

 _Oliver's voice hardened. "Don't worry Ez, we're the good guys. This, I'm sure of."_

 _Ezra began to smile a little. "Thanks, boss. For listening." He said quietly._

" _Anytime Ezra. Anytime." And so, Oliver left the big man to his drinking. He drank for a good long time._

* * *

 **Present Day.**

"He just ended up drinking himself into a hole for the next month. We were lucky. He wasn't that far gone, but he was struggling." Oliver finished. "All I want you to know is that you're not alone, and if you need anything, you can come and find me. Any of us. We all want to help you."

"... Thanks, Ollie. Thanks a lot."

"No problem."

"And sorry for beating the snot out of you." She added quickly.

"Don't worry. I get that a lot." He chuckled. "Needless to say, I'm used to it."

' _DAMMIT, OLLIE GET BACK HERE ASSHOLE!'_

"Really used to it." He added at the end, wincing a little bit. Yang just chuckled. And with that, the two left the arena feeling quite content. However, on the way back, Ollie cut his external speakers on his helmet.

"Siri, call Ozpin." He said, calling is personal suit A.I.

"I'm sorry _My Dank Ass Fresh Prince,_ but you don't have anyone named Odd's pon in your contacts." Came the response.

"Dang it Siri, THAT'S NOT WHAT I SAID! CALL _OZPIN!"_

"I'm sorry _My Dank Ass Fresh Prince,_ but you don't have anyone named Rozin in your contacts."

"COME ON! Call The Boss!"

"Playing _The Boss_ by Diana Ross."

"Very funny, Siri." Alright, his suit Artificial Intelligence was really that "intelligent." Dialing Ozpin's scroll by hand he waited several seconds before the line connected.

"Who is this?" Came the voice.

"Yo, Ozpin. It's me. Oliver." He replied. "Y'know, the guy you sent on the mission."

"Ah, yes. Mr. Auburn. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you. I don't have a _My Dank Ass Fresh Prince_ in my contacts." He said with a verbal smirk. Oliver growled a little bit and started mumbling something about 'deleting Siri and replacing her with Alexa' or something like that.

"Whatever. The job's done. The Fang won't be transmitting anything anytime soon. Plus, I took care of a little housekeeping issue on the way home. Everything's fine and dandy."

"That is good to hear, although we have some things to discuss. Can you please come see me as soon as possible?"

"Yes, sir!" The line cut off after that. Catching up to Yang, who had stopped to wait for him, he quickly told her he had to go see to something, and that he would find her and the rest of the team later.

"Ok! We'll be either in the dorm or in the library. You can come and find us when you're done!" She replied before walking off with a bit more spring in her step than before.

 _At least I did something right today._ Thought the Spartan as he turned around and made his way up to Beacon Tower. As he stepped into the elevator, he suddenly felt this sinking feeling in his gut. Like something bad was about to happen. Something horrible. It was a good thing he had never bothered to turn off his playlist, as the song _Hold On I'm Comin'_ came on and gave him a little boost of confidence. That sense of confidence was shattered as he entered the room. Standing around were a group of very important looking people. Sighing, he made his way over and joined the group of people around the desk. Nodding at Ozpin, the headmaster began.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the end has begun." He said as he gestured to what was on his table. And what they saw, shocked them all. _Oh no…_

* * *

 **And there it is! Consistent update schedules are now things of the past now. I'll still be aiming for weekly updates for this story, although that may not always be the case. If you want to get a good sense of my update schedule, join my Discord server (amazing self-advertising)! I'll be updating my JoJo story next, so that will be whatever that becomes. I haven't given up hope on it yet. This is my most popular story by far, and we've just cracked 50 followers! Thank you all for your time, and I will see you later.**

 **7MC9MeX here's the link. Hopefully, it doesn't die.**

 **Also apparently there's a side character in the Halo Canon with the Spartan Tag A-019 but I don't care. No one cares about that guy. He's dead.**


	10. Chapter 10: The Allies

**The following files were found in the archives of A.I. Program UTLA1789 or "Uistella".**

* * *

 **File #378646**

 **Subject: Fireteam No. 2547. Codename "Vertigo"**

 **Fireteam Vertigo was a highly classified Special Operations Team consisting of 5 members, serving aboard the UNSC Marder. Vertigo was created in the aftermath of the Human-Covenant war in 2552 as a means to help prevent situations like the aforementioned war in the future, along with other teams such as Kilo-Five. Knowing that humanity would not survive another war like the Human-Covenant war, Vertigo was composed completely out of surviving Spartans. They used codenames named after various demons, as they said, "They called us demons, so we'll become demons."**

 **Leading the team was Oliver A-019 (Codename: Eblis), a Spartan III designated as a  
Hyper-Lethal Vector by the Office of Naval Intelligence and was personally recommended for the team by Admiral Hood, who had witnessed A-019's combat prowess and tactical ability. The appointed second-in-command was Jaclyn A-078 (Codename: Barbatos), an unrivaled sniper and deemed fit for the role by Oliver A-019 himself as well as by the Office of Naval Intelligence. She was originally considered for the role of squad leader, but it was quickly decided against because of her short temper and inability to make fast tactical decisions. The Close-Quarters Combat (CQC) Specialist was Ezra A-156 (Codename: Balrog), who preferred to use melee weapons such as the T-2 Gravity Hammer. He was the largest of the five Spartans, and was diagnosed with acromegaly, or "giantism", the disease that 20th-century** **popular culture idol Andre the Giant suffered from that causes an excessive amount of growth hormones to be secreted. He was fortunately cured of this condition during Spartan augmentations, as a special chemical was added to** **suppress** **the disease. The Combat Engineer and heavy weapons specialist was Katherine A-295 (Codename: Abraxas). She was the smartest of the Alpha Company Spartans and was naturally pulled aside for Category II training. She was one of the designers for both the ARC-920 Railgun and the latest iteration of the Grindell/Galileian Nonlinear Rifle (GUNGNIR) Weapon System, dubbed the Spartan Laser by operators. She was originally slated for deployment with Operation: PROMETHEUS but was pulled out of the greater battalion because of her amazing intellect. Lastly is Kyle A-088 (Codename: Jarjacha), who was the Recon Specialist of the group, and was specialized for difficult terrain. A-088's family was of Terran Peruvian descent, and their culture was a big part of Kyle's off-duty lifestyle, hence his codename, "Jarjacha", a demonic dog that would roam the Peruvian Highlands in search of prey. He is the fastest of the group, clocking in at speeds of over 65 kph at a dedicated full sprint for short periods of time.**

 **Fireteam Vertigo participated in several high-value and major raids through the years of 2552 to 2555. They were often deployed to destroy Covenant splinter sects and Regional Insurrectionist Chapters, with notable missions being the Raid on New Harvest, the First and Second Enceladus Uprisings, and the ill-fated raid on REDACTED which led to the quiet disbandment of the team. Ezra A-156 retired to REDACTED on the Outer Colonies at the age of 18, and his status is currently unknown, assumed alive. Jaclyn A-078 was reassigned to the Spartan IV program along with Kyle A-088 and are both currently active. Katherine A-295 was transferred to the Office of Naval Intelligence Engineering Division on account of her intellect. She is currently off of active combat. Lastly, Oliver A-019 was transferred to Office of Naval Intelligence Research & Development Department to field test experimental technology against the enemies of humanity. He disappeared during the Project Peregrine tests and is currently listed as M.I.A. and presumed dead. None of the squad members have heard anything from each other since Vertigo's disbandment.**

 **Fireteam No. 2547 Status: Retired.**

* * *

 **File #692048**

 **Subject: UNSC Marder.**

 **The UNSC Marder was a heavily modified UNSC Destroyer, used for specialized deployments and strikes. The Marder was stripped of almost everything and put back together as a new ship, one of three in the top-secret Manhattan Class Destroyer. The Marder was outfitted with several times the normal weaponry than most ships, outfitted with two high powered MAC Cannons, as well as a stripped and heavily modified Covenant point-defense system, 40 Archer Missile Tubes, and 10 Shiva Class Nuclear Warheads, earning it the title of "Gunboat." It utilized a powerful Ion-Engine Array that allowed it to reach speeds faster than most destroyers. The Marder served alongside her sister ships, the Oppenheimer, and the Howitzer, and all of them were allocated their own troop forces. Each ship was outfitted with one ODST Battalion, and one Spartan team along with dedicated support crew. The Marder was assigned the ODST Harbingers, and Fireteam Vertigo. During the course of its time in service from 2552 to 2555, the Marder served as a base of operations for the Harbingers and Vertigo and was often used as a mobile assault platform, using its twin MAC Cannons to obliterate targets from orbit. After the raid on REDACTED, the Manhattan Class ships were pulled from the front lines and eventually were docked in storage in 2557 after two years of nothing. The Marder is currently docked on Sanghelios as per a deal with the Arbiter to keep it away from prying eyes along with the other Manhattan ships.**

 **UNSC Marder Status: Retired.**

* * *

 **File No. 128354**

 **Subject: 78** **th** **ODST Group. A.K.A. The Harbingers.**

 **The 78** **th** **Harbingers were a group of ODSTs that served onboard the UNSC Marder. The name Harbinger came from a long line of Harbingers before them, dating back as far as the 2300s, with the troops of the 78** **th** **being the last to receive the title. They were often dropped into high-stakes missions with only minimal supplies. They utilized more advanced technology that normal UNSC Marines and ODSTs and were capable of spending long periods of time behind enemy lines, which was their primary mission most of the time. Each Harbinger was said to have had the same training as Spartans, only without augmentations, and while they were physically weaker and, in most cases, not as tactical as their Spartan counterparts, they were very well trained and very deadly. They worked alongside Spartans such as Fireteam Vertigo on many occasions. However, during the raid on REDACTED, the Harbingers encountered heavy resistance and suffered heavy damage and lost over 60% of their soldiers. In the end, the 78** **th** **ODSTs were disbanded due to heavy casualties and the incidents that occurred during the raid. No new Harbingers have been chosen since.**

 **The other files regarding the UNSC Marder and her crew have all been classified or destroyed. No trace of the aforementioned soldiers remains.**

* * *

 **(A/N) As much as I hate to break character, I have to respond to a guest comment.**

 **First of all, get an official account! This will let me respond to you properly instead of having to type out a long response at the end of a chapter.**

 **So, the comment said Oliver A-019 should've beaten up Yang in the last chapter, and if it were some other fic, I would've wholeheartedly agreed. Ollie could probably beat Yang in that state easily, but** **that's not the point.** **The guy is trying to** ** _help_** **the girls, not give them a horrible smackdown each time they mess up. His job is to make sure the girls make it through the school year, not put dents where their faces were. Are we good on that now? Ok. I'll see y'all later. Thanks for reading.**

 **P.S. Did I go too edgy with the codenames being demons? Let me know. I did try to keep it light-hearted by naming a couple of the codenames after a couple demon lord from Dungeons and Dragons. If you can name then, good work.**


	11. Chapter 11: Guns & Roses

**Alright, time for the next one. I'm gonna level with you here, this one isn't the best. The title's pretty bad too. I had no ideas. I might change it in the future. It's really just a total author insert but I don't care. It's gonna have some point in the plot. Hopefully. I really needed something happy to write because I've been having a pretty rough day. Big thanks to my friends for helping me out today. On to the chapter.**

* * *

Everyone stared at shock at what was on Ozpin's desk. It was a map. It was covered in red symbols. The map legend up in the upper right corner indicated that the red meant destroyed settlements. There was a lot of red. So much so, that the calm sky blue of Ozpin's display was shadowed in crimson. Windows opened showing video reports of the carnage. Town defenses were overrun, houses were destroyed, and everyone could only watch as each feed slowly cut out one by one.

"These feeds are documenting Grimm attacks over the last two weeks. Grimm Nests are popping up left, right, and centre, to the point of being less than 5 kilometers away from some town borders. This is very concerning, as the last town to be attacked was the town of Ingristead, which is only 20 miles outside of the Greater Vale area. If we do not act, soon all of the other settlements will fall, and Vale will be next." Ozpin said, deep concern evident in his voice. The other members of Ozpin's inner circle began to murmur with concern as well.

"This is why I've decided that we will take action. We are all very accomplished Hunters, and it's our job to ensure the safety of the people. Tomorrow night, there will be a massive Hunter sting, with Hunters across the Vale region attacking various targets. That will include us." Ozpin concluded, grabbing his cane. Everyone murmured their agreement, while Ironwood confirmed that he would be committing some specialist platoons to assist with some bigger targets. Soon after, the meeting closed, and the occupants of the room left to continue with their day. However, Oliver stayed behind.

"Alright Boss, here's the intel." He said, handing the Headmaster the USB thumb drive. "Here's everything from shipping schedules to possible hideouts. They're all yours."

"My thanks, Mr. Auburn." Ozpin responded.

"Alright then. What's my target?" The Spartan asked, ready for some more action.

"You don't have one."

"…"

"…"

"What? Why not?" Asked an incredulous Oliver, doing a bit of a double take.

"You see, while you are one of my most capable fighters, you are still a student, and that means you are under my responsibility. We need you and the other members of the Praesidium Initiative to keep the students safe, and you're one of them. The school dance is also on the day of the sting. Didn't you want to join?"

"Yeah, but don't you think we should have all hands-on deck for this one?"

Ozpin simply ignored that and refused.

"Besides, you are musical, aren't you? Why don't you perform for the students? Keep them entertained. After all, Glynda won't be around to rag on you all." He said with a smirk.

Sighing, Ollie gave in. "Fine. You all have fun then. I'll come up with something." He groaned.

"Alright then. Have a good day Mr. Auburn."

"You too Sir." The Spartan responded in a deadpan.

So, he left without another word.

* * *

 **Later.**

After checking in with Team RWBY in the library and seeing that things were going smoothly (no one was dying) he decided to pick the dance's song list. The only problem? He was a guitarist. There was no bass. No drums. Just a single Gibson Les Paul. Oh no. To solve the problem, he would have to alter every song so that there was no guitar and vocals, then enhance all of the backing parts so that they could be heard. Letting out another sigh, Ollie walked down to the music store, picked up a Bass guitar (Not cheap.) and went up to edit.

 _This is gonna be a long night._

After about 6 hours of editing, he managed to get a 15-song list of hits from the 20th and 21st centuries, as he thought most of the modern music they had in 2555 was absolute garbage. Specifically, ones with an emphasis on guitar and bass, as those would be the instruments he would be playing. He hadn't played bass since he had landed, so he was a bit rusty, but managed to perform almost as good as he did before Remnant. So, the next day passed quickly, and preparations were in place for the dance. The dining hall was transformed into a ballroom with a dance floor and everything. There was even a stage with an EDM mixer, which Ollie assumed was for the DJ. Everyone was getting dressed up, and what was even better, was that Team RWBY was looking the happiest Oliver had seen them.

 _At least I can do something other than kill._ He though contently while setting up his sound system. _Maybe I'll be able to be like that someday._

The hours passed, and it was soon time for the festivities to begin. Knowing that playing instruments in Mjolnir gear would be very ineffective, he changed into his street clothes and put on a pair of sunglasses to look cooler and blend in with everyone else a little more. It was also to hide his eyes. Since they were augmented, looking at them would be very disturbing for some, as they looked very ragged and torn, and also because of the augmentations, he was given a sort of night-vision somehow. This led to a bit of difficulty when operating in bright conditions, so he typically wore contact lenses or straight up sunglasses. As the people began to mill about, Ollie stuck to his corner in the back, nursing a cup of punch. The other Praesidium Initiative members threw him some nods and all clear signals. Even if there was a party, some people were still on high alert. About an hour in, the DJ had started playing, and Ollie took this as his cue. He snuck up to the back of the stage and up the ramp to the stage itself.

 _If there are any bad guys in this building, they'll look at this._ He thought.

Grabbing his guitar, he threw the backing track on through a simple hack that Robbo had taught him to sneakily connect to any system. In this case, to the EDM mixer's outputs. Then, he walked up to the mic.

"Let's get this party started, shall we?" He said with a smirk before he started playing. This would be a true test of his skill! He had never really performed much, but he was on a fairly good skill level. Besides, it would be nice to up his favor with the other students. If anything, this performance was more practical than anything. He began to play the opening riff for a personal favorite of his, "Holiday" by a bunch of guys who named themselves after the color green or something. Everything came out crystal clear, and before long the crowd had adapted to the change in sound, bobbing and weaving with the chord changes.

 _Looks like everyone's enjoying it._ He thought happily as he continued playing and the lyrics began. By the time he had reached the interlude, the whole crowd was clapping along. The politically charged lyrics and the heavy beat took the lead, and the crowd was loving the rebellious nature of the song. So as the last chords were strummed, everyone was on their feet. In the sea of faces, Oliver could make out the smiling faces of Team RWBY. He quickly moved on to the next song, and the next, and the next. For the first time in a long while, he was having genuine fun. Honest fun. It was an activity that didn't involve him shooting someone and instead had him playing music for a bunch of superpowered teenagers. Who would've thought? He eventually reached the climax of his show, the 8-minute-long eulogy by a band named after guns and flowers called "Civil War" featuring some of the best guitar solos he'd ever heard. It told the story of a totalitarian government killing off its local leaders and starting a war that eventually dooms the nation. However, at the end of the epic song, he noticed something suspicious. In the back, there was a woman in a black dress and a masquerade mask making her way outside. There was also a slight flicker coming from her fingers.

Finishing up the song, he decided that it was time to cut it and make his move. The crowd roared with support as the final guitar note rang out through the dining hall. He then slipped out from behind the stage and pulled on his combat mask. It was a collapsible mask that had all the technology found in an ODST helmet, VISR and all… but with a fifth of the protection. The thing could only protect against a pebble at this point. It was more of a tool than a form of protection. Getting out of the hall, the crowd had gotten back to dancing and drinking, which left almost no one guarding the entrance.

Pulling out his magnum, he saw the lady take out a couple Atlas guards by simply kicking them. She took out another two, then stepped into the elevator leading up to the top of the CCT Tower. Letting out what must've been the 20th sigh that night, Ollie switched off the safety on his pistol and decided to take the stairs. Get some exercise. He made it up in about 5 minutes. He had expected an evil mastermind hacker girl in stilettos flaunting a key card sitting in front of a display typing away. What he didn't expect to find was two girls up at the top. One was the culprit he was chasing. The other was Ruby Rose. Ruby was wearing a gray dress and high heels. _Looked like Weiss managed to get her to wear those._ They were both locked in battle and hadn't noticed the Spartan yet, with Ruby opening fire on the woman with her rifle, and the lady simply blocking all of her shots. Falling into his familiar stance, he rushed forwards and threw a hard jab at the mysterious woman, who took a step back to avoid the punch. She smirked at Oliver while falling into a fighting stance. Ollie just pulled his arms up into a basic guard that would be effective against almost everything, as he had no idea of how this crazy lady would fight. She threw a lightning fast kick, and if Oliver had blinked, he would've missed it. However, he didn't, and moved away at a 45-degree angle and swept in for a roundhouse kick aimed for the lady's abdomen. He felt the blow connect but was pushed back by some unknown force. He grunted as he was pushed back a few feet. Lady had obviously felt the blow, but she instead wore a mix of a grimace and a smirk.

"Oliver Auburn. The Wrath of Arkados. My mistress is interested in you." She said.

"How do you know about that?" Oliver spat as he heard the title she had given him.

"My mistress makes it her business to know about these things." She calmly responded.

Grunting, Oliver leaped forwards once more to launch a flurry of precise strikes, which the lady dodged. She ducked under one of his kicks and attempted to sweep his legs, but Ollie was faster and jumped out of her range and fired off a few shots from his Magnum, the reports deafening in the enclosed space of the CCT Tower. However, she just defused and blocked the rounds with her bare hands, each round fizzling in a shower of sparks before falling to the ground.

"It is futile. I already have what I came for. Like I said, my mistress wishes to see you." The Lady said snarkily.

"Well tell your mistress that I'm not interested and that she can go ahead and choke on smoke because I sure don't want to work with insane people like you." Oliver angrily shot back.

"That wasn't a question."

Alright, now she was asking for it. Oliver jumped right into the fight again, throwing a hard punch at the woman, who dodged. The same routine repeated, with both sides attacking, but was met with no avail. Then, the woman used her special move. She grabbed a vial of dust from her belt and threw it in the air and blew on it. Within seconds, the dust turned into shards of ice and flew right towards the heroes. Luckily for Ollie, Ruby stepped forwards and spun her Crescent Rose around in a circle, smashing the ice spikes to smithereens. She then proceeded to launch a counterattack, swinging her scythe around in a wide arc. The woman was taken aback by the sudden attack and was forced out of turn. Oliver took this chance and threw a hard push kick into the woman's abdomen, sending her careening into the window. She leaned against the glass, stunned until all three were brought to the attention of the elevator. Oliver and Ruby whirled around to see who had arrived. Standing there in a crisp, white uniform was General James Ironwood of Atlas. In his right hand, he held a Revolver. Raising the hefty hand cannon, he pulled the trigger and fired a shot right at the woman, who instead of blocking, dodged. The shot instead impacted the glass behind her, shattering the window pane. Smirking, she turned to Oliver.

"My mistress awaits." Then she jumped out the window, leaving the Spartan, the Huntress, and the General alone in the room.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Funny isn't it? She stole the mouthful of bread, but you broke the window pane. How _ironic._ " Oliver's pointed jab directed at Ironwood was lost on the stern-faced man as he turned to face the two.

"Good job. Her escape was my fault. You did the right thing chasing her up here." That was all he said before walking into the elevator. Sighing again, Oliver made his way over to one of the displays.

"I'll call Ozpin. The man in the high tower ought to know what happened. And thanks for the save back there Ruby. Otherwise, I would've been human swiss cheese." He said, hunching over the CCT interface, plugging in his scroll.

"No problem." She replied, a small grin gracing her lips. "You did good too. But I have to ask, what did she mean by the 'Wrath of Arkados?' I don't know what that is." She asked. Oliver tensed.

"It's… a tough subject." He got out through gritted teeth.

"Ah…! Sorry for asking." She said, looking a little downtrodden now.

"Relax. It's just something personal. Can you come over here and help me give the Headmaster the debrief? You were here first." Said the Spartan, to which Ruby nodded and she made her way over across the shards of broken glass.

"Also, what's Swiss Cheese?" Ruby asked.

 _Another long night for me._

* * *

 **Alright. I hope it wasn't too bad, and if it was, I'm sorry. I really needed something loose to write. This will probably the last "happy" chapter I'll write for the next bit. Things are gonna get darker in the next chapter. I had kickboxing today as well, so I'm aching all over. I also have swimming. Send help. I mentioned this in another story, but I have a certain song playlist that I listen to, so I can get into the writing mood.**

 **Here's the one I use for Oliver. Give it a listen!**

 **Note: All the songs can be found on Spotify and Apple Music. Or just go on YouTube.**

 **Glory – The Score**

 **My Blood – Twenty One Pilots**

 **Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand**

 **Do Your Worst – Rival Sons**

 **Could Have Been Me – The Struts**

 **Amerika – Wintersleep**

 **When the Curtain Falls – Greta Van Fleet**

 **Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want – The Smiths**

 **There Goes the Fear – Doves**

 **Bandito - Twenty One Pilots**

 **All These Things That I've Done – The Killers**

 **This is what I have. Check them out!**

 **I'll see you all later.**


	12. Chapter 12: Proof of the Past

**I messed up on the title for the last chapter. I misspelled it and I had to take it down and re-upload it with the correct title. Jesus, I'm so fucking stupid. Well, I said I was gonna make a darker chapter last time, so here it is. I wanted to make up for lack of updates, so here it is. I really want to update faster but I have to learn things, of which 98% will end up being completely useless. Anyways here it is. Spoobi.**

 **Edited to be a little better. It's only been a day. Oof.**

* * *

The night after the dance, everybody was back into their usual routines. Only Ozpin and the Inner Circle, along with Ruby Rose, knew about the incident and break in at the CCT Tower. Both Oliver and Ruby were currently sitting in Ozpin's office, and had explained everything.

"So, she climbed out the window and disappeared. Then we told you." Oliver finished, explaining the events of the previous night, with Ruby nodding and chiming in at some points. Ozpin furrowed his brow.

"We still don't know what she took?" He asked, concern lining his voice.

"No, sir. She just grabbed her scroll and jumped out the window." Oliver replied.

"I see. We'll look into this. You're both dismissed. You don't need to go to classes today. Get some rest." Ozpin said. "And Mr. Auburn, would you mind staying a little longer? I have some things I would like to discuss in private. You may leave now, Miss Rose."

Ruby took a glance at Ollie, whose expression was hidden behind his reflective visor, before reluctantly leaving the room and taking the elevator back down. Only after the elevator door close with a light ding, did Ozpin resume his conversation.

"So, you don't know who the intruder was?" He asked the Spartan.

"No idea sir. For all I know, she could be a hundred years old. However, she did have some characteristics that could be traced." Came the response.

"Such as?"

"Well I had my man Kowalski run an analysis and she had this characteristic swing step that seemed to give off an air of bravado. Like, a really exaggerated step. She also had black hair and these hazel eyes. They seemed to burn right into your soul. I know that sounds corny, but it's true."

"I see. Go on."

"She also used this sort of… specialized dust that she could solidify at will. Plus, she could block both Ruby's and my own gunshots with her bare hands. She was also able to deflect and defend against my hand-to-hand strikes. Even with Aura, you would be protected against physical damage, but you would still be hit with the force of the blow and be pushed back. She just looked a bit bothered by it."

"Then I believe I know who the attacker is," Ozpin concluded.

"Then who is it?"

"I believe she is the one who attacked Amber and stole her power. Her abilities seem very characteristic of a maiden. You're right, a normal person could not withstand those blows, but a maiden could." He answered, pushing his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. "We don't know her name, but she could potentially still be in Vale, or even on school grounds. I want to know who she is."

"So, you want me to find out who she is."

"Always so quick-witted. Yes. Your next mission is to discover the identity of this maiden. You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir. I'll get that intel."

"I'm counting on it."

* * *

 **Later.**

"So, then she called him 'The Wrath of Arkados' or something. It looked like something that really bothered him." Said Ruby, as she explained the events of the previous night to the other members of Team RWBY. They were all on better terms with each other now and while there was some damage remaining, they had all made up for the most part.

"Arkados? Isn't that some town in Mistral?" Asked Blake.

"Something like that. Apparently, it was destroyed a little while ago when the town dust factory went up in flames." Said Weiss. "But why would he be set off by that?"

"Come to think of it, why was he kept in Ozpin's office?" Asked Blake again, which Yang nodded too.

"Yeah. He also has been coming back later." Added Ruby.

"Not to mention the time he helped us fight that mech. He literally just appeared out of the blue, with no other Hunters." Said Blake.

The four girls continued to discuss the subject when Oliver walked into the room.

"Hey, I'm gonna be out of the dorm for a little bit. I have some things I have to do. An old friend is in town for a little bit and there are a few bars open late on weekdays." He said while dropping off his equipment.

"Who is it? A girl?" Teased Yang.

"If an extremely skinny, coffee addicted guy with a skinny penis can be considered a woman, then sure." He responded, pulling on a fresh t-shirt and a hoodie before walking right out the door.

"Oh ho? And how would you know that? Personal experience?" Yang responded cheekily.

This caused disgusted looks to be thrown around the room.

"No, a crazed wannabe gangster nearly hacked it off a year ago. That's all you need to know." Ollie responded. It was the truth.

That shut her up.

"He is skinny as all hell though."

 _Jesus Robbo, you really need to put on some weight._ He thought as he left the room.

Immediately, Weiss shook off the disgust and shock of the previous series of events and opened Oliver's equipment bag. Inside the beige duffel was just what she needed. His helmet. She was immediately struck by how heavy the piece of headgear was. It was easily 20-30 pounds and must have been crazy uncomfortable to wear.

"This should give us the answers we need." She said.

Inside the helmet was a Scroll-Compatible chip, and when inserted, carried a whole lot of data. Most of it was video footage.

"Let's see what type of _stuff_ he's got." Said Yang in her usual teasing voice. Scrolling all the way to the beginning. At the top was a video file titled "Day 15." Tapping it, a video opened.

 _There was a sound of clanking as the camera just looked into blackness then was bathed in light as the camera was picked up. Looking down at the recording device was Oliver A-019, albeit much younger, with no facial hair, and his brownish-black hair shaved down to an extremely short length. He appeared to be examining the helmet, as the camera tilted back and forth for a little bit before he flipped it around and the field of view settled on what was in front of him._

" _Oi, you ready?" Came a muffled, somewhat raspy voice. Looking up, the camera shifted focus to a man in armor very similar to Oliver's. On his chest, was a set of bandoliers carrying grenades. His right arm had a large armored shoulder-plate, as well as a sheath for a beefy looking recurve knife. The helmet was very different as well, with a visor in the shape of a dome, and there was freshly etched carving on it. A carving of a skull._

Back in the room, there was total silence. Everyone was somewhat shocked by the appearance of another armored man but kept watching.

" _Yeah, give me a sec Emile." Came Ollie's reply, to which the man revealed to be "Emile" nodded his helmeted head and turned around and walked into the adjacent room. Oliver stood up and grabbed his rifle off a crate next to him and walked out the door and into a big hangar, with dropships that had no resemblance to Bullheads sitting along the floor. Standing at the loading ramp of one of them was Emile and two other armored soldiers. One of them was big and towering and was cleaning a blade along the backside of a massive hammer, while the other was casually leaning against the side of the dropship. The big one had a helmet that was very simple in design and had a single curved visor going across the helmet. All of his armor pieces were bigger as well, and his gauntlets had a thick amount of armor over the wrists. The smaller one had smaller shoulder plates, the helmet was less angular, and had a visor pattern that resembled that of an "x" albeit a very soft and rounded one. There was a combat knife attached to his chest piece and thinner armor around the codpiece area._

" _Well if it isn't our fearless leader!" Said the smaller one, aiming a friendly punch at Ollie's head, who ducked it and smacked the guy on the back._

" _Well, I'm pretty sure the dumbass is here. What crap did you cook up this time, Kyle?" Came the response._

" _Aw, come on. You know how disgusting the slop they feed you is! The 'Pasta and Meat Sauce' is just wheat strings and beef water. The pasta's not even_ Al Dente _, it's just mildly soft." Moped the one called Kyle._

" _He's got you there, Boss." Said the big one, looking up from his work. Caving in, Ollie visibly slumped._

" _It's true though. I'm 14, and I need better food than the crap they feed us! The Meatloaf isn't Meatloaf, it's 'somewhat warm block of animal innards.' Absolutely disgusting."_

" _Well, we should get moving. You know the Sergeant will have our asses if we aren't on time." The big one said, putting his hammer on his back and grabbing a gun of some sort off the rack next to him._

" _Yeah, yeah. Get in your seat Ezra, we'll be there in a few seconds." Ollie could be heard saying before they all walked up the ramp and into the dropship. The camera feed cut there._

Back in the present, the girls continued to scroll through the various early videos. Or at least, the ones that weren't encrypted. There were some others that looked sketchier but were locked with a layer of advanced encryption. Something far above anyone at Beacon's expertise. So, they all continued to scroll through the clips, but the most interesting thing was labeled "Day 15 (2)."

It appeared to be a continuation of the first clip.

 _Standing in an airlock-like room, the four armored men stood in a line facing the door. They all had various weapons at the ready._

" _Alright fellas, game faces on. We're going up against Carter's team, so we have to be prepared for everything." Oliver said, slamming a spare magazine into the stock of his battle rifle. The others in the room began to load their weapons._

" _What's the game plan, Boss?" Asked Ezra, picking up a shotgun and pumping it with one hand before sliding it onto his back next to the hammer._

" _We're running another Capture the Flag game, so we need a designated runner. Kyle, you're up. Ezra, you're the wall, so you take point. Emile's got the launcher, so he'll stick in the back. I'll give you guys cover fire. I want us in a wedge formation. Remember, this is Carter, so be prepared for the flanks and whatever crazy shit he dreams up. He also has Jaclyn on his team so watch out for sniper shots. We have no long-range capability to counter so keep your eyes peeled. Wagner and Josie are also with them as well, so we better keep an eye out for them too." Oliver concluded, summing up the game plan. "We go straight for the flag and get out fast."_

" _Copy." Came Emile's response, loading a grenade into his Launcher._

" _Roger that." Said Kyle, stretching a little bit, in preparation for the upcoming sprint._

" _Let's do it." And with that, the door opened, and the soldiers stepped out into the battlefield. It was a run of the mill training ground, with some platforms providing high ground and several concrete barricades offering spots of cover from the incapacitating stun-rounds they were equipped with._

 _Taking aim with his BR55, Ollie could see no threats directly in front of them, so they assumed formation and moved on. As they made their way through the walls of concrete, Kyle caught a glimpse of a shimmer. The shimmer of a sniper's scope._

" _Sniper! Get down!"_

 _At that alert, the team scattered and ducked behind cover as a single shot rang out, barely missing Emile. Looking over at Oliver, who nodded, the two popped out from cover to unleash a torrent of bullets at the sniper, presumably Jaclyn, as Oliver fired off several three-round bursts at her positions, while Emile fired off a grenade with his Launcher. There was an explosion of bright pink paint, and the squad pushed forward. Reaching the high ground the sniper was situated on, they went up there and found nothing. Just a lot of pink paint. Then, a hail of paint bullets rained down from above, and they all looked up to see two enemies standing above them._

" _Scatter! Engage at will!" Yelled Oliver, before jumping up on to, then off of the wall to get up to the ledge the enemy soldiers were standing on. He threw a hard right straight at one, before shifting his balance to his right foot and planted his left foot into the other's Solar Plexus. The first one recovered quickly and proceeded to try to push kick Oliver off the ledge. The key word here is "try". Having done this plenty of times before, Oliver caught the leg an inch away from his abdomen before flipping an unlucky Wagner up and off of the platform, who gave a surprised yelp before hitting the ground. The lights on his armor lighting up red, signaling that he was out of the fight._

" _Dammit!" Came Wagner's frustrated grunt, as he picked himself up off the ground and made his way over to the exit._

 _Turning his attention to the other adversary, he saw that it was the leader of the team, Carter A-259. He took a swing at Oliver, who blocked with his right arm and proceeded to jab Carter in the face with his left. Carter quickly recovered and threw a series of unpredictable, yet structured, punches that Oliver was only barely able to block and a few actually connected, dazing him._

 _The camera shook and moved a lot, as Oliver bobbed and weave around Carter's attempted blows while attempting to perform a solid counter-attack. Eventually, Oliver managed to snake a left hook around Carter's pressing offensive and felt the satisfaction of the crack of a hard metal gauntlet meeting helmet. Taking the opportunity, he jabbed him several more times before kneeing him hard in the gut, knocking him onto a lower platform. Shaking off the pain, Carter pulled out his Magnum and shot up at Ollie, who rolled backward to avoid the projectiles. However, what Carter didn't notice was Ezra behind him. He was sent flying a moment later._

" _Thanks for the save there, Ez." Ollie said, jumping down to meet the big man_

" _No problem. Now let's get moving. Josie and Jaclyn are still somewhere out there, and Kyle is running the flag." Ezra said, hefting his hammer._

" _Roger. Kyle, where are you?"_

" _Running along lane 3. I got two on my tail." Came the response._

" _Keep movie. Ezra and I will rendezvous with you and we can get a move on. Meet at Junction 17."_

" _Copy."_

 _Running off, the camera jostled around more, as the pair sped down to meet with Kyle. They arrived just in time to see him be plugged up the ass with a sniper round, his armor lighting up red._

" _Ugh! Pass off!" He yelled, throwing Ollie the flag, who promptly caught it._

" _Let's move!" The two bolted back towards their starting point. Vaulting over barricades and sliding under obstacles and to throw off the enemies' aim that didn't stop Jaclyn from firing off several shots, all which barely missed to due to the duo's erratic movement. However, they were only an inch away. Soon enough, she would score a hit as she did with Kyle. There was a crack, and a grunt of pain from Ezra, who staggered a little bit as the sniper round hit him in the shoulders, popping his shields and causing him to slow. Knowing he wouldn't be able to outrun them now, he turned around and grabbed his shotgun off his back._

" _Get the flag back! I'll buy you some time." He said as he pumped the shotgun once. Oliver just nodded._

 _Sounds of gunfire erupted behind him, but he kept running, flag in hand. Up ahead, emerged a figure. Emile._

" _Slide!" Came his yell, to which Ollie obliged, skidding across the floor as Emile fired his Launcher over him at the approaching operatives._

 _There was a large explosion behind him, and he felt the gravel and shrapnel ping off his helmet and armor. Staggering a little as he rose to his feet, he ran the last leg back to his flag position and planted the enemy flag into the ground. There was a pleasant "ding" and the arena voice said: "Team 1 wins! All team members please report back to the airlocks for debrief."_

 _And the video ended there._

Back in the present, Team RWBY had been watching the replay of the match late into the night. They were somewhat shocked, but they hadn't found anything incriminating. It was just helmet cam footage of some soldiers training. And while the armor was certainly suspicious, especially with the unusual dropships and different weapons, this could be explained by saying that they were third-party equipment and they were playing a glorified paintball match. Either way, the girls all had something to sleep on, but there was nothing inherently heinous or illegal in the footage. Not that it was their main intention, of course. They wanted to get to know their mysterious teammate more. However, with all this done, it was now very late, and Ollie would be returning soon. Returning the chip to its slot in the back of his helmet, the four girls settled down to bed, pondering the new information they had acquired.

* * *

 **Chapter done. I kept with the lighter tone for this one, simply because I thought it would fit the feeling of the augmented armored teenagers playing brutal paintball. Spoobi. I wanted to have exactly 3000 words for the chapter, but then I realized you probably don't know the helmets I used for Ezra and Kyle. Ezra has a Mark-IV helmet (The one used by all Spartans before Halo 2) and Kyle's using Mark V (B) (The variant used by Noble Six and is the default helmet in Halo: Reach). Anyways, I hoped you enjoyed, and have a wonderful day.**


	13. Chapter 13: The Mouth of the Cave

**This is long overdue and I've just been really goddamn lazy. I'll try to get things back on track, but I am actually writing this in school. So without further ado, on to the chapte** r.

The bars weren't terribly busy that night. Bright fluorescent lights washed the streets in shades of white and yellow. Walking these streets often held an eerie feeling to it. There's always something new around the corner. Oliver "Auburn" A-019 rounded another street light, in his usual hoodie and sweatpants, falling both in between light and darkness. Soon, he reached his destination. A small hole-in-the-wall bar where not many people frequented. Walking in, the bartender gave a friendly wave as Ollie took a seat next to a skinny guy in a dark hoodie in a booth.

"Roberto."

"Ollie."

The two ordered a couple drinks from the bartender and began their discussion.

"So, I'm looking for this really scary lady."

"Features? I'll run her through the database." Said the master hacker, powering up his laptop. Tapping away at the keyboard with practiced ease, he opened up the WillowWisp software they had been using to probe the cameras and quickly plugged in the search parameters for the woman that Ollie had promptly rattled off. He first began scrolling through the civilian database for her. There were several matches, but none of them completely fit the description the Spartan had given. Robbo proceeded to look through camera feeds for this elusive vixen next. Sure enough, they found two cam locations where she frequented. There was one in the west side of the slums, the other was in a residential area, presumably the location of a safe-house. In both locations, she seemed to be surrounded by White Fang goons as well as two Hunter level fighters. One had dark skin and bright green hair, and the other looked like a bad attempt at recreating a mid-2000s emo look with what appeared to be robot legs.

"Now, we're getting somewhere."

After finishing their drinks, the two friends exited the bar and made their way to the local power plant. The power plant had a special connection to a data stream that could be traced all the way up to Beacon Tower, which gave it the fastest run speeds with a direct connection. Weaving their way through the dark, empty streets, they navigated the urban labyrinth towards the location. Along the way, Ollie couldn't help but notice a small group of people that kept turning up.

"Robbo, we got trailers." He whispered to his friend, who proceeded to move his hand to his pistol, hidden in his waistband. They both continued on their way. Eventually, a group of masked men appeared in front of them. Another group appeared behind as well.

"Crap."

"Crap is right, filthy humans." Said one of the goons, adjusting his signature White Fang Grimm mask. A few pulled firearms, while the others grabbed melee weapons. Most of them, however, simply raised their fists. Without a word, one of them rushed forwards and tried to punch Ollie, who moved to the side and threw a jab to the man's face. He recoiled, dazed. Taking advantage of the situation, the Spartan planted a hard hook into his jaw, knocking him unconscious. Another sprinted in, hefting a hammer. The hammer came down on air as the Spartan dodged with another burst of speed. He forced his knee into the man's face.

At the same time, Roberto was facing his own opponents. Grabbing his pistol, a snub-nosed revolver, he raised it and fired at one of the gunslingers in the back of the enemy formation. The round impacted with the gunman… and proceeded to burst into flames. The tip of the bullet flamed violently as the fire dust combusted on impact, much like thermite would. He then fired another shot, this time at a group of melee fighters. The cartridge hit one woman square in the chest, but it wasn't the bullet that dealt the damage, but the after effects of it. The spent round released a noxious-looking green cloud into the air around the group of thugs. They then began to scream in pain as the acid ate away at their auras, and for the unlucky ones, their flesh.

Back with Oliver, he had taken down a few more of the enemies. However, he didn't notice a large Faunus creeping around the rest of the fighters. Two rushed the Spartan from the front, which he quickly dispatched with ease, but the big one smashed into him from behind. Hitting the ground hard, he turned over just in time to block the punches from the thug on top of him. The thug was straddling him in a power position, which wasn't good. However, Ollie knew how to take advantage of the situation.

 _A calm mind will always prevail._ Harkening to his training, he took a deep breath and grabbed the man's wrists, pulling him down and locking him in place by pulling his head to the side with his right hand. Grabbing his right wrist with his left hand, he held on tight as he sat up and wove his right hand through the goon's arm and grabbed onto his own wrist. This forced his assailant's arm into a 90-degree angle. Bringing his left arm up, he gained leverage over the enemy, forcing his arm into compromising position. Showing no mercy, snapped the man's arm with a single deft move. He shrieked in pain as his arm was bent the wrong way, and was kicked off. He was quickly replaced with another one, who tried to bring a hammer down on the Spartan's head. Moving quickly, Ollie swept his leg under and through the guy's stomach, flipping him onto his back and with Oliver on top. He quickly put an end to the encounter with a hard punch to his face. Getting back to his feet, he caught a kick from another thug. Grabbing his head with his right arm, he proceeded to knee the poor fellow in the face several times.

Back with Robbo, he had dispatched all the goons on his side. He quickly reloaded, letting the spent cartridges fall to the floor and insert some new ones. Several more shots rang out and the other goons hit the ground. Ollie finished off the last one with a hard roundhouse kick to his temple.

"You know, you could've just used the gun," Robbo said, gesturing to Ollie's holstered Magnum.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

"Fair enough." The pair continued to the power plant.

"We gotta be quick. Otherwise, more goons are gonna show up."

Ollie nodded. Soon enough, they reached the connection port room.

"Cover me, I'm connecting." Whispered Robbo, opening his laptop and setting his pistol on the ground. Ollie pulled out his Magnum and trained it on the door to the room. The light pitter-patter of the keyboard filled the room as the hacker connected with the mainframe and began his gold mining. Diving through layers upon layers of code, he dug deeper. More and more information was gathered. Eventually, he found a cluster of files that seemed suspicious and saved them onto his USB. He also acquired the locations she had been frequenting. With those in his USB, the two slunk out into the night, their mission accomplished.

 **Later.**

"Here you go Ozpin, hopefully, this'll be of use." Oliver A-019 said, dropping the USB onto the Headmaster's desk.

"My thanks, Mr. Auburn. I take it that this holds what we need to know?"

"Not exactly. She has a whole web of pseudonyms and fake IDs, and even so, I doubt that her real name is out there. Facial recognition has come up with a ton of hits in the industrial section as well as the eastern exit of the city, so that's a start."

"Good. That is a nice foundation. Get some rest then, you've done well. Dismissed." Ozpin said, plugging the USB in.

Ollie gave a short salute before leaving. Walking back to the dorm, he stopped off at the laundry room to clean his dirty hoodie, before heading back his room. He entered the room without so much as a single sound. The girls were all asleep, which was good. What wasn't good, was the fact that his duffel bag was in a different position as if someone had opened it and then closed it without covering their tracks. Frowning, he saw that the zipper was slightly ajar, along with the fact that his helmet was in facing backwards when it was facing upwards when he put it in. Upon opening the memory chip in his helmet, he saw that the video files had been opened a mere three hours ago. Placing everything back and getting changed into his sleepwear, Ollie decided that he would sleep on the topic. Everything's always clearer with a good night's sleep. Climbing into his hammock on the ceiling, he quickly dozed off.

 **I'll try my best to not slack on updates. Schoolwork takes priority. Speaking of schoolwork, I have socials. See y'all later.

Editor Psihopatul here, my apologies as well proofreading took bit longer than I thought because of few personal things as well as few mistakes i made while checking the chapter through, my edits were to be done few days ago but because few extra button presses on my keyboard i had to go through the whole chapter again to fix those mistakes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I certainly did.

**

 **FINAL NOTE: I'm uploading this through the app to see if this is a viable update system. If this is buggy on release, then forgive me. I'll fix them later if anything turns up.**


	14. Chapter 14: Simple Math

**Alright, I'm writing this on the Google Docs app as it not only a test but also seeing if the formatting will be good enough to me to use on my upcoming 7-hour plane ride down to Mexico. This will let me write anywhere at any time and also let my editor, Psihopatul, to check it via the cloud. Anyways, on to the chapter.**

* * *

Oliver A-019 wasn't liking his current situation. He found out last night that the girls in Team RWBY had been looking through his Memory Chip in his helmet and he was now certain of their growing suspicions. Sighing, he sat up in his hammock, which hung from the ceiling. In his hands was his MJOLNIR Operator class helmet, which contained the chip. He didn't like instigating tough or uncomfortable situations, and it wasn't good for morale. This was especially true for Team RWBY, as they had been ready to tear out each other's throats at the beginning of the year. He decided to play it softer, and upped the access protocols to the highest level and password-locked everything with his catchphrase which no one had gotten to this day: "Bazinga."

With everything locked, this would also send a subtle message to them if they tried to get into his account again. _I know what you did._ Sighing to himself, he silently hopped down to the floor and slipped on his street clothes before going out for his morning run. Walking out into the courtyard, he took in the beautiful Vale sunrise that he had been looking at for the last couple of months. Despite the same scenery, it never got old.

"It's a beautiful day outside," He began, "Isn't that right, Cardin."

Approaching him from behind was Cardin Winchester and his lackeys, Team CRDL. They all hefted their weapons. The four of them surrounded the Spartan, who stood still, looking Cardin in the eye as the bully got into position in front of him. The two exchanged glances before Cardin spoke up.

"We still owe you for that beat-down you gave us back then." He snarled. "So we think it's time we repaid you. Without your armour, you're probably just a wimp with no skills."

Ollie's face stayed neutral but his annoyance grew. He clenched his fists in his pockets.

"Really? I'm sure that's what you want to do to your mom every time she spanks you, but you just couldn't get the job done." Came his witty retort, to which Cardin growled.

"Beat him into the ground!"

He rushed forwards in a predictable charge, mace raised. He swung in a wide arc, which Ollie dodged by stepping backwards. The swing left Cardin wide open, so Oliver swept his legs out from under him with ease. From behind, Cardin's No. 2, Dove Bronzewing, came in with a slash and tried to cut the Spartan. In response, he sidestepped the attack and grabbed Dove's arm. He pulled forwards and elbowed the boy in the back, knocking him off balance and right into a dazed Cardin, who fell flat onto his ass.

Back in the arena, he was holding back a little bit due to the fact that he was being watched by other students as well as being in MJOLNIR, which could multiply his attacks to that of lethal strength. But now, he was pulling out all the stops. Sky Lark was the next one trying for an attack, swinging his Halberd. Despite his poor footwork, he was clearly proficient with his weapon. Ollie cleanly dodged a stab before striking out with a low uppercut into the boy's stomach and then throwing a right hook into the side of his head, sending him sprawling to the floor. He spat out a globule of blood from the corner of his mouth as he hit the concrete. Russell Thrush, being the rogue he was, came in for a stab with his daggers from behind. Sensing his opponent, he twisted to the side, but unfortunately, not fast enough as the dagger graced him along his side, drawing blood. A small red patch began to grow on his hoodie. Russell was taken aback a little bit.

"This idiot doesn't have aura!" He said, partly taunting, and partly in shock.

"Doesn't matter. It means we can crush him easier." Said Cardin, getting back to his feet. Ollie maintained his straight face. He was a little miffed about the fact that his hoodie was stained now though. Giving a sigh for another time, he rushed in for the offensive to end the encounter quickly. He threw several straight punches into Cardin before finishing him with an elbow to the face. His nose cracked as it was broken, blood spurting out in steady streams. As Cardin reeled back, Ollie showed no mercy by spinning around and using that newfound momentum to kick the boy in his stomach. Turning to Dove, he ducked under his frantic sideswipe and turning up behind him. He then slid his arm across Dove's throat, choking him before throwing him to the ground, hard.

Sky and Russell attempted a final rush but Ollie wasn't having any of it. Sky stabbed at the Spartan with his Halberd but was quickly shut down when a strong hand grabbed his weapon and wrenched it from his hands. With his newly acquired Halberd, Oliver used it as a pole vault, flying above the previous owner of the weapon. He then used the polearm to choke the poor boy and used him as a shield when Russel flew forwards and tried to stab him with his daggers. Instead, the bladed weapons struck Sky's Aura, knocking the wind out of him as he slipped into unconsciousness. The fight was finished with a right hook to Russell's jaw.

The encounter left the team on the ground, groaning in pain.

"If you really want a shot at beating me, I suggest you actually put some work into training for 12 years before finding me again," Oliver said, standing over Cardin.

"Don't you lecture me! This school is my playground, and you're a monster! The glory is mine! You deserve to stay at the bottom with all the other freaks!" Cardin lashed out.

"There are no freaks or heroes in war. There are no winners or losers. There is no glory in death. Believe me, I know." He said in a neutral tone that betrayed feelings of anger. "If you really want a shot at being a REAL Huntsman, meet me in the gym at 6 tomorrow."

So he walked away.

* * *

 **Later.**

Luckily, the only wounds Ollie had sustained were a couple light scratches, courtesy of Russell. His hoodie had a little red stain on it, so he dropped the article of clothing off at the cleaner before heading back to the dorm. Ozpin hadn't given him any new assignments as of late, so today was a normal day of classes. So he was forced to sit through classes with the rest of his team. Of course, he already knew everything that was being taught. So there he was, sitting through Math class, writing down notes on charting line graphs because he had to for the sake of class grades. He took this time to think about the current situation with the enemy. They all currently had no idea where they were based out of, and while they had crippled their communications, there was nothing stopping them from actually entering the city. They had to cut them off at the source. If only there was a way to pinpoint their position. Any information would be good, but none of Robbo's hacking skills would help with this, as there were no functioning security cameras on the roads outside of Greater Vale.

That's when it hit him. If any form of information would do, then all he had to do was find out a general location. Ozpin would get a patrol together and everything would be fine and dandy. How would he do that? With a bit of simple math…

 **Ozpin's Office**

"Alright Mr. Auburn, let's hear this theory of yours. How do you plan on finding the hideout?" Said the Headmaster, taking a sip of his coffee.

Oliver pulled out a map of the Vale Province.

"First of all, we need to find our two axes, X and Y," He began, using a marker to draw two lines, one vertical and one horizontal. He then put little marks at equal intervals along the two lines. At the centre was Vale City.

"On the map here, we have our two lines, X and Y, with Vale in the middle. Our 'Zero' sector. Remember how I said the White Fang had been frequenting the Eastern Exit? Well, let's assume that they are leaving from there." He continued, drawing a line from the east side exit road. "Next, we have to take a guess and assume they will be exiting from the Western Slums. Considering that it is a high traffic location for the Fang, it's not hard to assume that." He drew another line. "Now, we have to find our Y-Intercept. In other words, an area where our two lines intersect."

On the current vectors that the lines were on, in this case, the major trails, they would cross somewhere south of the big city, about 20 notches below Vale.

"Therefore, our Y-Intercept is at 0,-20, or 20-degrees south of Vale. Which leads us to…" He pointed at the area on the map. "Mountain Glenn."

"We'll be generous here, and assume that they are operating within… let's say 10 klicks of Mt. Glenn. That means the Fang will be coming in via the roads going through that area, and they must be operating directly from within 5 klicks as an actual base." Finished Oliver, circling the area in red marker. He then proceeded to map out a series of entryways into Vale that could be taken from Mt. Glenn, as well as a series of open trails that could take people from Mt. Glenn to the rest of Remnant.

"And there it is. The rough area of the White Fang base of operations." The Spartan set the marker down on the table while Ozpin looked on in awe.

"So you're telling me that you've done what a group of military specialists with the best technology couldn't do with simple Math?" He asked.

"Yeah. Sometimes, the hardest problems have simple solutions. This is very much a rough concept. We have no solid way of knowing whether or not they are based out of Mountain Glenn but think about it. If I were the head of a terrorist organization, where would I hide? Somewhere out of the way. Somewhere dangerous yet safe. Mountain Glenn is perfect for that." Ollie reasoned, to which Ozpin nodded. His eyes were glazed over in thought.

"We have an excursion for all teams coming up. They will all shadow a Hunter out on the field for a patrol. I want you to go with Team RWBY for a strike at Mountain Glenn. Professor Oobleck will go with you, but that is your next mission. However, you must not divulge the real purpose behind this mission to the girls. We must not bring them into this unless it is completely necessary. I will have Bartholomew cover for you." He ordered, a stern mask covering his face. He set down his mug and gripped the handle of his cane tightly.

"Yes, sir." He said, snapping a loose salute.

"Dismissed."

Turning out the door and leaving, Oliver couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement that he had found the location of the enemy. For many, this would be a great service and an opportunity to save a lot of lives. But for Oliver, this one was personal.

"Alright, you sons of bitches, it's payback time."

* * *

 **Done. For the most part, I did write it in the Google Docs app, and it does seem to be working fine, though it is a little tedious to correct things with. As for the payback thing, I have a flashback planned for that, so don't worry. I have all the bases covered and you didn't miss anything. I also apologize for the chapters not being as long as I would have liked, and I have no other excuse other than I ran out of ideas. I'll see you all later.**

 **Excelsior!**


	15. Chapter 15: Old Truths

**I'm hoping that this chapter and maybe the next one or the one after that will wrap up Volume 2 of the actual show so that we can move on to the Vytal Festival. Anyways, I hope you enjoy.  
**

* * *

Walking down to the arena, Cardin Winchester and his team didn't know what to expect. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have shown up, but that son of a bitch had challenged him. What else was there to do? Look like a pussy in front of his team? Oh hell no. He had expected a fight. A fully armoured man ready to take them on. What they were not expecting was a fitness cycle. Set up in the arena were a bunch of cones, some weights, and some mats. Standing amongst them all was Oliver Auburn. He was adorned in his armour and looked meaner than he usually did in that thing. Cardin could hear Russell gulp nervously next to him, but he paid him no mind. What was this? An obstacle course for 5th graders? Seeing as his cohorts (victims) had arrived, Ollie turned to face them.

"Good, you're here. I want you all to run 50 laps around the arena now." He said coldly. Cardin just looked at him incredulously.

"What the hell is thi-" He began before a gunshot exploded at his feet.

"I DID NOT GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SPEAK!" The armoured man boomed. "NEXT PERSON TO SPEAK OUT OF TURN GETS SHOT IN BETWEEN THEIR LEGS. 50 LAPS, NOW! LAST ONE BACK HAS TO RUN AN EXTRA 20, SO GET GOING!"

Not wanting to be castrated today, the boys set off to run 50 laps around the arena. Every so often they would hear a loud bang at their feet that would spur them to go faster. Eventually, they made it back to the starting point, and Dove was last. He just groaned but didn't want to risk the wrath of the soldier who was currently levelling a gun with his testis. He set off again.

"So for the rest of you, after you're all warmed up, I'm gonna be running you all through hell. And I expect you to be back here again tomorrow. And next week. And the week after that. Got it? I'm also going easy on you, so don't bitch about it being to hard. I had it worse." He said, clipping the pistol back to his belt. He quickly ran the boys through a high stamina endurance course, followed by two hours worth of hand-to-hand drills, and then finishing the course with another 50 lap run. By the end of it all, Team CRDL was VERY tired and required help to stand. This was beyond most hunter training courses they had taken.

"Are you tired? You should be. What you're doing is at least 3 years ahead of your level." Ollie said as he handed the exhausted boys some bottles of water. Cardin looked like he wanted to complain, but he was too tired to open his mouth to say anything. "We'll be doing this thing tomorrow as well, so be ready for it."

Like it or not, Cardin complied.

Over the next few days, and carrying on into the next week, Cardin and his team were brutally punished both physically and mentally, but their skills had improved quite a bit. They had been borderline competent before, and now, they were a full-fledged team. They had learned to depend on each other and to work together. Ollie had specifically trained them to be able to use each other's weapons so that they could know how the others on the team would fight. Their grades drastically improved as well and they started to draw back on their delinquency, but that was mainly because of the threat of a gunshot to the balls. Or at least, at first. As they became better and better students, they began to cultivate their first motes of actual respect. It was like a drug that they just couldn't ignore. The problem with delinquency is that you get respect through fear, and when that fear is gone, there is no power. Normal respect is just there. So their improvement continued.

* * *

 **Later.**

"Alright students, as you may have heard, at the end of this term we will be having an excursion. You are to shadow your assigned Huntsman or Huntress chaperone on a mission. Remember that your job is to merely shadow them, not to engage with any actual threats other than clearing a camp at your chaperone's orders. Other than that, there isn't much to say. Good luck out there, and I will see you all when you get back." Ozpin finished up his speech and stepped off the podium. Bringing his Scroll up to his ear, he spoke calmly to the person on the other side.

"Is your team ready?" He asked.

"All ready. The girls are all riled up for a search and destroy mission, and there happens to be one staged at Mountain Glenn. It's for second years though, so you may have to get us clearance for this one." Said Oliver.

"Okay then. Tell them to take that one and I will give you the clearances for it."

"Copy that. Oliver out."

Making his way across the floor, Ozpin watched as the members of Team RWBY clicked the button for the Mountain Glenn excursion, but were met by a big, fat, red DENIED sticker. They all visibly drooped at that. Smirking a little bit, he decided to make himself known.

"Well girls, don't look so down. This mission is intended not for those with the proper age, but for those with the proper skill. And I believe that you five have the proper skill." Ozpin smoothly said, tapping his Scroll against the denied sticker, which quickly turned into a green QUEST ACCEPTED sticker, like something you would find out of a fantasy game. The members of the team all lit up at this and began to talk amongst each other excitedly and started to thank Ozpin profusely. Nodding at Ollie, he turned and walked away to see what other stuff he had to contend with. Smiling a little, Ollie grabbed his things and motioned for the girls to follow him. They had an excursion to catch after all.

Back in the dorm, Ollie grabbed the weapons that would be best suited for this job. He grabbed the Volts s they were the most versatile weapons he had and were supremely good at clearing out enclosed spaces, which were in abundance in the ruins of Mountain Glenn. He took his BR55 for mid-ranged combat and grabbed his trusty Magnum. It had always served him well, so it was an easy choice to grab it. He wouldn't take the Messenger as there wasn't really any need for a sniper rifle in this situation as they wouldn't be fighting at the extreme ranges that snipers were generally used for, and any longer ranged encounters they would be having would be covered by the BR55. Finally, he grabbed his Machete for a bit of extra melee power. With his loadout packed, he waited for the other members of the team to finish. Blake and Yang had packed light, only taking their weapons, since there was no other need for anything else. Weiss had followed suit as well. Ruby had taken a light rucksack with her, but Ollie didn't think much of it. Probably her stash of cookies if he were to wager a guess. Making their way down to the docks, they passed by a bunch of students.

"What's going on here?" Yang asked as they stopped to see what all the hubbub was about.

"Team CVFY's back!" One of them said. Oliver recognized the name of the team. They were a team of second-years who were very skilled and some of the best in their respective year. Apparently, they had been off on a mission that was scheduled to finished three days ago, but they were coming back now. Soon, the members of the team appeared, getting out of their battered Bullhead Dropship. They looked tired, and they probably were, but at least they didn't show it.

"Hey, if they made it back, then at least we have a chance." Ollie pointed out, to the nods of the rest of the team. Deciding that they shouldn't dilly-dally any longer, they made their way over to their designated landing pad. When they got there, a lone Bullhead sat waiting. The pilot was beginning the fuel injection sequence for liftoff.

"Come to think of it, shouldn't we have a chaperone? Where are they?" Asked Blake looking around the Dropship.

"That would be me, Ms. Belladonna." Came a familiar voice. Standing behind them with a big backpack and his mug of straight caffeine was none other than Bartholomew Oobleck, the history professor of Beacon. Everyone froze. 'Not this guy.' The girls all thought. Ollie didn't really mind. If anything, Ozpin probably planned on having Oobleck accompanying them anyways. He was in on all the action with Salem and was their prime consultant when it came to situations that involved ancient lore and lost knowledge. Even if he was a bit... eccentric. Like it or not, he was who they got, so everyone piled into the Bullhead and they took off for Mountain Glenn.

* * *

 **At the destination.**

"Contact!"

The moment they touched down, they were met by a heavy amount of Grimm. Scrambling out of the hold of the ship, the team began to take on the monsters. Grabbing his SMGs, Ollie let loose a burst at an encroaching group of Beowulves, blowing one apart and shredding a second one. He then leaped into striking distance and turned both his Volts into their sword forms, then put the two blades together to form a broadsword. He then proceeded to slash the remainder of the Grimm apart. As he let the last Beowulf fall off of his blade, it's dissolving black blood staining his sword, Yang blazed right past him and crashed into a massive Ursa, delivering a hard haymaker that blew the bear monster's head clean off. As if it wasn't even there, she continued her carnage, brushing off the big carcass like it was nothing and planted her fist into the faces of several monsters. Then, with a mighty stomp, the beaten beasts were sent flying several feet into the air. Ollie watched in bewilderment as Ruby flew through the air and bisected them all in a storm of rose petals, delivering death like a red grim reaper. There were more sounds of gunshots as Blake fired away with her pistol while Weiss backed her up with pinpoint stabs from her rapier. Seeing as those threats were taken care of, the Spartan jumped and clambered his way on top of what was once a massive urban structure, now reduced to rubble. Grabbing his Battle Rifle off of his back, he caught sight of a flight of Nevermores circling his teammates. Taking aim, he took down all but one of them with precision bursts before he ran out of ammo. Ejecting the spent magazine, he grabbed it and swapped it out with a fresh one before cocking the bolt. The last Nevermore was huge and was at least an Alpha, if not an ancient Nevermore. Firing a few shots into it, he watched as it swooped down towards him. As it was about to collide with him, Ollie jumped over the head of the massive bird and landed on its neck. In a futile attempt to knock the offending human off of its back, the Nevermore slammed into the side of a building, but Ollie held on, shoving his Machete into the neck of the bird. His shields popped and he felt the rocks pelting against the metal exoskeleton that was his armour. Pulling his Machete out, he drove it into the beast's neck over and over. Straddling it to get a better angle, he hacked away at the neck as it began to plummet. He rode it to the ground, only stopping his lethal assault when the carcass grounded to a halt and began to dissolve. Leaping off of the dead bird, he swapped his Machete out for his SMGs and sprayed down the remaining beasts as his shields recharged with a few beeps. Soon, the last of the Grimm fell as Ollie put a bullet in between its eyes.

"Clear on this end." He said, clipping his SMGs back to his hips. He received a message on his Scroll from Yang, confirming that it as clear over there as well. Meeting back in the middle, he met up with the rest of the team, as well as Oobleck, who had been observing their performance and assessing their technique.

"Very good job, students. Now, we must set up camp for the night. You three go ahead and search for a suitable place to camp, while your other teammate and your leader come with me to reconnoiter the area." Oobleck said, waving Ruby and Oliver over. Weiss, Blake and Yang all nodded and walked off to search for an area to set up camp for the night. Ruby and Oliver followed the professor in the other direction.

"Alright, since we have cleared out the majority of the Grimm in this area, then it should be safe to split up and search for and eliminate the rest of the stragglers." Oobleck said, to the nods of the students. Going off in his own direction, Oliver kept his finger poised on the trigger of his BR55, creeping down the cracked and darkening street. Every so often a Creep or a Beowulf would leap into his field of vision, and he would simply put a couple bursts into it and move on. Soon, he had dealt with everything in his sector, and he made his way back to the rendezvous point. "All clear over here." He said, to the nod of Oobleck.

"Off to base then!" He exclaimed, and they all made their way to where the other girls had camped out. They could see the faint orange glow of the fire in one of the windows of a nearby building. Climbing up the stairs, Ruby immediately rushed into the room.

"Have you seen my bag!?" She asked worriedly. Probably her cookies then. Oliver thought as he sat down against the wall in front of the flickering flame.

"Relax, Ruby. It's right here." Weiss said with an exasperated tone, handing the girl her bag, who let out a breath as she got her hands on the sack.

"What's in the back anyway?" Asked Blake.

"Oh! N-Nothing much..." Ruby began nervously when a muffled bark could be heard and suddenly, a little furry head of a dog popped out. This little dog was Yang and Ruby's family dog and was sent over by their father in a little container the size of a 21st Century Pringles Can along with about 69 cans of food. All in the same goddamn Pringles Can. So while the others were ranting about the dog and all that stuff, Oliver fiddled with his pistol, zoning out. He started listening to a bunch of old alternative music from the 1900s. He briefly caught something about Ruby taking first watch and all the girls settled down to sleep. Deciding that this was as good a time as ever, he turned off the music and drifted off to sleep. Or at least, tried to. The girls started talking about their pasts and about everything that had been happening. They talked about how the year had gone by so fast and all the things, good and bad, that they had done. However, they got on the topic of Ollie quite quickly. Normally, Oliver would just ignore it. Gossip was never really something that caught his interest. However, he was curious as to what his teammates thought of him.

"So what do you all think of Ollie?" Asked Yang.

"Other than the fact that he's a bit of a prick? He's okay, I guess." Weiss responded. Ouch.

"He's a pretty nice guy and all. He's a strong fighter and has a good sense of morals. We still don't know that much about him though." Blake said. "Come to think of it, hasn't he been in Ozpin's office an awful lot?"

"Yeah, and he's been out a lot lately. He's obviously not in a relationship or he we would probably notice, and it's not like he's been committing crimes. There would be news reports of that." Yang added. Uh oh. Time to defuse?

"We should probably ask Headmaster Ozpin when we get back to Beacon," Weiss said. Ok, now it's time to defuse the situation.

"What were y'all saying about me? Something about me committing crimes?" Oliver said, acting as if he had only just woken up.

"Cut the crap. We know that something's up. Spill it." Weiss said, rather angrily.

"Alright, but what story do you want to hear?" He asked, hoping to maybe throw out something believable.

"How about we start with your past. Don't even think about lying, because if I get even the slightest bit suspicious then I'm going to ask Ozpin the moment we get back."

Here we go. Time to throw a good old curveball and put a spin on things.

"Alright then, if you insist. You ever heard of a town called Meridian? I doubt it. It was wiped off the map before Ruby was born. I was one of the only ones who got on the outbound transports. We ran for Mistral, and I grew up in the slums until I was picked up by the military. They trained me, to become a killer. To become a soldier. I was apart of the special forces there until I split and went freelance. Before you ask, yes I was a child soldier. I didn't know any better back then. I was a mercenary for about three years until the incident at Arkados. Yeah, that incident. So I made my way here and Ozpin somehow let me in. So here we are. The abridged story of my life. Happy now, kiddo?" Oliver finished telling the semi-altered story with a sigh and looked at the girls to gauge their reactions. Their faces were blank.

"I know you all probably hate me, so I'll do you all a favour and remove myself from this situation. I needed some air anyways." Oliver said flatly, before getting up and heading to the roof of the ruined structure. And for the first time in years, he cried.

"Godammit."

* * *

 **The Town of Arkados. 6 Months Ago.**

Sneaking into the city, Oliver A-019 crept down the dark alleyway, next to the town hall. A couple of White Fang guards stood guard in front of the main entrance to the hall. Bringing his suppressed pistol to bear, he put a single bullet into both of their heads. Rose red blotches of blood decorated the walls where their heads were. Opening the door, he took out the guards in the lobby and caved in the skull of the White Fang commander that was giving orders to units around the city. Ever since the Fang had taken control of the town they had been cutting off trade routes around Mistral, and the Mistrali Spec Ops teams that had been sent in had been killed or driven off. So they called Ollie in. His mission was the to overload the Geothermal Dust Reactors in the basement of the town hall so that all the White Fang units in the area would be wiped out in the ensuing blast. He blew open the heads of three more goons with his Magnum as he sped down the halls.

"Robbo, directions. I need a insert and an exit route." He barked into the comms.

"Copy that. Sending now." Came Robbo's calm voice, accompanied by the familiar tapping of a keyboard.

Another thug hit the ground as Oliver drive his high-speed knee into her face, smashing her mask. Turning the corner, he busted down the doorway to the basement. He emptied his mag into the handful of foot soldiers defending the room and killed them quickly. He jumped up to the engineering room and found the corpse of what used to be the engineer. His chest was blown open and he was slumped against the wall. There would be vengeance for him, as well as all the others who had died here. Grabbing Robbo's detonation codes, he stuck the USB Stick into an open port and trained his pistol at the door as the protocols for the overload were being uploaded. The upload finished quickly, and Ollie grabbed the stick before speeding out the door and out onto the street. He ran for the town square where a Mistrali Airship was floating about 30 feet above the ground, it's cannons blazing as it attempted to hold off the White Fang thugs trying to shoot it down.

"There's my ride. See ya fellas!" Ollie leaped up onto a low roof, then used that as a platform to clamber onto the next roof up. He sprinted along the roof and jumped for the airship, skidding to a halt in the cargo hold of the craft. As he was about to yell at the pilots to get going, which they, already were he noticed something in the window of one the buildings. A woman's face, her expression plastered with fear. And not one of a White Fang thug's, but one of a civilian.

"Wait, we have to go back! There's civilians down the-" That was all he could get out before the town exploded. He just looked at the fireball in horror. How many? How many civilians had been left in the town when it exploded? He was so shocked that he didn't even have any tears to cry. On that day he swore there would be vengeance. But he didn't know who he would take vengeance on. Because he was the one who had killed them all.


	16. Chapter 16: Terminal

Ollie had stayed up on the roof for the rest of the night, cradling his rifle in his arms and taking potshots at some Grimm every now and then to make himself feel a little better in some twisted and sadistic way. He couldn't bear to face his teammates after what he told them last night.

 _Congratulations! Your teammate could be classified as a national terrorist! Have fun with dealing with that!_ He thought to himself, giving a little self-deprecating chuckle. The sun was rising now, and there he was, still sitting on a half-collapsed rooftop with a smoking rifle while drowning himself in self-pity. Standing up, he decided that now would be as good a time than ever to head down and deal with whatever damage he had caused. If things went poorly, he'd probably leave the team and go and work for Ozpin. He was still an operator, so at least that's something. Sighing to himself, he opened the rusty door that led back into the ruins and started down the stairs, back into the building.

* * *

 **Back Inside.**

Grumbling, Ruby reluctantly woke up. Beside her, she was being nudged by her dog, Zwei, who was complaining in some mystical dog language about something that she really didn't want to care about. But Ruby, being Ruby, did care.

"*Sigh*, you need to use the potty, pal?" She asked tiredly.

Zwei nodded ecstatically and dashed out the door.

"Zwei!? Ugh, COME BACK!" Yelled Ruby, before she also dashed out the door. Outside, she found the little black and white dog relieving itself in one of the ruins. There was a steadily growing puddle growing beneath him.

"Well, at least I can see why you didn't want to do it inside the camp," Ruby said, chuckling a little to herself. The dog bounded up to her and the two of them prepared to head back up to the camp to get a little bit of sleep before Oobleck woke them all up for breakfast. Yet, before they could do that, they heard a rumbling beneath them. Soon the earth beneath them opened up to swallow them whole. Zwei, being the god-like dog he was, quickly leaped to safety. Ruby was not so lucky. So with a yelp, she plunged into the massive sinkhole, her weapon clattering on the edge of the pit. So as the rumbling stopped, if anyone were to come across this curious sight, all they would see would be a little black and white dog sitting next to a red scythe at the mouth a large, dark, pit.

* * *

 **In The Camp.**

As Ollie walked down the stairs, he heard a rumbling, then a scream of surprise. A startling familiar scream with a familiar voice. Ruby's. He rushed down to the campsite where he was met by Yang.

"Did you hear that?" He asked, and she nodded. Grabbing his rifle off of his back the two of them rushed out into the street, or rather, jumped out of the window and out into the street. Within seconds, they reached the mouth of the sinkhole, where they found Zwei and an abandoned Crescent Rose sitting by the gaping pit.

"Ruby's scythe! She'd never leave it behind!" Exclaimed Yang, as she knelt down to examine the weapon. Zwei walked up to her curiously and she unconsciously patted the dog on the head, probably out of worry.

"You go wake the others up. I'll see if I can find anything that might have caused the sinkhole. We can settle all the red-tape stuff later." Oliver said, with renewed conviction. Yang nodded and used her gauntlets to blast jump back up to camp. Picking up the scythe, he slipped it onto his back and peered into the sinkhole. Down below he saw the true ruins of Mountain Glenn. An entire ruined city lay underground, and Ruby must've fallen down into it. As he stood up and surveyed the rest of the sinkhole, he heard a couple voices.

"That scream came from around here. I'm sure of it." Came the first one.

"Are you sure you're not just hearing things, Kent?" Came the response.

"C'mon, Riker. I'm the guy with the ears, right?" Kent responded.

Spinning around, Ollie saw a couple of White Fang guards turning the corner. Before they could react, he shot forwards at the speed of a car and slammed the poor fellows' heads into the ground, knocking them out cold. That was when the girls came down. They saw the thugs, but Oliver had gotten to them before they could react.

"If these guys are here and Ruby's down there without her weapon, then..." He started but never finished. They understood the predicament. They all looked towards Professor Oobleck, who was their guardian for this excursion.

"Normally, I would suggest that we retreat, yet I cannot leave one of my students alone and unarmed in enemy territory! Quickly then, let us rescue your leader!" He exclaimed, to the cocking of weapons. To everyone's surprise, Oliver stepped up to ask Oobleck.

"Can I?" He asked, to Oobleck's nod.

"Alright, Roberto, I need an immediate group tracker on this location." He spoke into the air, and to the girl's surprise, they heard a response, emanating from his armour's speakers.

"Copy that, trackers established. You have a plus-four entourage with you. Marking on your HUD. I also got the cams while I was at it. There's a whole pit of White Fang under you, sweet brothers, what the hell are you up to this time?" The man, who Oliver referred to as 'Roberto' replied.

"Solving a problem." Was all that he said before leaping into the pit before him.

* * *

 **In the pit.**

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever wondered why we're he- WUGH!" The goon had the wind knocked out of him as he was bulldozed by a falling suit of armour. His aura shattered as he hit the ground. Oliver sound on his heel and hit the other goon in the head a well placed Magnum shot, knocking him out. The aura had taken the damage, but not the force. Three more enemies appeared, raising their weapons. He rolled to the side and let the blazing bolts pass him. Taking a knee, he brought his pistol once more. One. Two. Three. Three shots, three targets down. Reloading, he looked upon his HUD and saw his mini-map light up with activity. Behind him were four green dots, thanks to the trackers that Robbo had enabled. In front, several red dots had appeared and lots of them at that. Grabbing his SMGs, he rushed the first group, leaping over them while spraying them down with fire dust. Little fireballs exploded against the enemies' auras as they staggered before falling, their biological shields failing. Not holding anything back, he sprinted forwards at full speed, reaching about 65 kph. The thugs couldn't counter anything. Several punches later, the second group was down. One group left before this area was clear. The leader of this group was smarter than the others and had his men set up in a staggered firing line, one shot would take down the shields, the other shot would take out the person. Or at least, that was the plan. Chucking a grenade into the enemies' midst, he watched them scatter in panic. A quick, but small, victory. Soon, his teammates arrived, walking past the piles of unconscious bodies on their way over. Oobleck was a bit startled but soon reclaimed his composure.

"Uh... Good work taking care of those enemies, Mr. Auburn! Very good job, indeed! Now we just have to locate your leader." Oobleck started before Oliver put his hand up to silence him.

"Already done. My man on top's got a relative location. Somewhere down this way." He said, pointing down a path. "Next to a train track, kneeling in front of that asshole Roman Torchwick, seriously, what kind of name is that? She has her hands bound and she's flanked by two guards. And there's the guy with the big saw. Here, lemme project it for you."

Within seconds a little display opened up on his TacPad. He displayed Ruby on her knees in front of Roman and a large Faunus with a chainsaw. Next to her were a couple of guards that had weapons trained on her back. The situation started to get a direr as Roman pointed his cane at her head. In an act of desperation, Ruby used her semblance in an attempt to get away but was hooked by Roman's bizarre cane/weapon hybrid.

"Time to dash. Robbo, make some noise." He said briskly before sprinting off in the direction of his teammate. Some gunshots went off, probably Robbo hacking into some turrets. However, it was painfully obvious they wouldn't reach her by running. Luckily, Yang had a plan.

"Weiss! Give me a propulsion glyph!" She yelled. Weiss grunted in response and planted a glyph under Yang's feet. As if she was being shot out of a cannon, Yang was blasted into the air and over several ruined buildings, and spatter falling for a few seconds, socked Torchwick in the face. Rounding the corner, Blake and Weiss rushed forwards and finished the other goons off. Getting back to his feet, Torchwick nodded at the big one before shooting a flare right at his feet, the resulting smoke masking his escape. Oliver took a few shots at him with the BR55, but the shots were glancing as Torchwick ducked into the cabin of one of the trains. The remaining thugs all loaded onto the waiting locomotives.

"We need to stop those trains!" Yelled Ruby. "They were loading bombs into them! And weapons, and there were talks of them attacking Vale, and..."

"Relax. I got your weapon. Are you ready to fight?" Ollie asked calming oh, to Ruby's ecstatic nods. "Then come on. We have a train to catch."

Leaping up onto the top of the train, helped the others up. "Fifteen tangos coming up on the cart three modules down. We need to get inside now." Oliver said. Leaning down to lift up the hatch that would lead to the inside of the cart, they were all shocked to find a bomb waiting for them.

"Get onto the next car! Sever this one!" Yelled Oobleck, who dashed for the next car over. As the rest of the team jumped over the gap to the next car over, Blake slipped in between the two train modules and cut the links in between the two with one slice. She's had practice after all. The team watched as the car fell behind them and promptly exploded in a large fireball. Climbing back on top, Blake's eyes widened as she ducked under a volley of bullets.

"How many of them are there?" She asked, returning fire with Gambol Shroud in its pistol form.

"Too many to fight without support. We need to get inside the train." Weiss stated, creating a wall of ice with her rapier. Taking the opportunity, Oliver disengaged and fell back behind the ice and opened the hatch. To his dismay and surprise, it was another bomb. Grabbing the explosive device, he pried the bomb out and chucked it forwards at the group of thugs on the car in front of them. The device detonated in midair and the ensuing shockwave knocked most of the soldiers. The survivors were then promptly swept off by Ruby, who zoomed forwards in a flurry of rose petals, her scythe blade configured into the shape of a sickle. Opening the hatch, Ruby was relieved that this one contained no explosives. However, before she could jump in, a storm of missiles exploded around her. Looking up, she saw a trio of Paladin Mechs approaching the group. Some of the many Ruby had seen them load on board. It had taken the full efforts of the team to take down just ONE of them. There wasn't much they could do against three. Then, they watched in bewilderment as the mech in the back was suddenly engulfed in a black mass of Grimm. It mutely exploded as sparks flew and the sound of rending metal was evident in the musty air. It twisted strangely before hitting the ground with a thud and exploding in a grand display as the train sped away.

"Subterranean Grimm! The explosion of the train car must have opened up a chamber along the tracks!" Oobleck exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter right now! Keep moving!" Oliver yelled, firing a burst at the front mech before turning around and sprinting for the next car. Pulling on the hatch, he found that it was locked. Sighing, he kicked down hard, the hinges giving way after a few good stomps. Looking up, he saw that the mechs were already upon him, seemingly unfazed but the recent loss of their comrade. He was about to run for it when a blazing projectile slammed into the metal beasts, sending both of them tumbling like logs onto the tracks behind them. Landing at his feet was a familiar black and white dog.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS DOG MADE OUT OF?!" He yelled, looking back at the girls at the head of the car. Ruby just shrugged. Wasting no more time, the team jumped down the hatch into the train car. Inside, they were greeted with glaring fluorescent lights and a petite girl dressed in white, pink, brown. Through his helmet's speakers, Robbo gave his commentary.

"That's Neopolitan or Neo. She's Roman's prime lackey and one of the best assassins in the underground. Be careful with her, she can give any of you a run for your money." He said. Yang stepped forwards.

"Don't worry, I can take her. You all go on ahead, I have a score to settle with this one." Yang half said, half snarled, as she took up a fighter's stance. Oliver was about to move on with the rest of the team when Robbo barked into his ear.

"Give her an earpiece! She won't last against that psycho!" He yelled. Ollie complied, tossing Yang a spare earpiece. "Alright, Yang, was it? You're gonna want to lean with your left and go for a heavy feint, faking with your left and lashing out with your right. Do as I say and you just might make it out alive."

"Okay then, if you say so. But just saying, if this doesn't work, we're doing this my way." Yang said, to a grunt of acknowledgement from Robbo. Leaping forwards, she leaned in with her left foot and started with a left hook, which she quickly cancelled and swung upwards with a fast right uppercut, a bolt of hot dust was fired at the same time, punching a hole in the ceiling of the train car. Neo was only able to dodge the attack by a hair. Taking the initiative, Yang threw a series of straight punches, which Neo tried to dodge by stepping back, but was hit by the volley of dust bolts that were being fired by the gauntlets.

"Nice! Now go in for a heavy lunge. She'll either try to dodge to the side as she can't dodge the dust bolts or try to block with her umbrella. She won't have time to use her semblance if you act now. If she blocks you flip over her and attack from behind. That attack pattern has an estimated 78% chance of success, while her dodging will result in a 54% chance of success. If she does dodge, throw a hook at her while she's in midair." Robbo ordered, tapping away on several different devices at once. Yang obliged, and blasted forwards the heavy-handed attack was met with a strangely resilient umbrella. Doing as Robbo said, Yang flipped over Neo's shield and punched her hard in the spine. Or at least, tried to. At the last minute, Neo zipped to the side and kicked Yang in the back.

"Dammit! She's fast!" Yang got out before raising her arms in a guard, blocking a hard blow from Neo. Yang retaliated with a roundhouse kick that was easily dodged by her speedy adversary. The melee continued in a similar manner, with Yang being forced on the defensive and Neo dodging all of the blonde's counterattacks.

"Ok then, get some space in between the two of you. Draw her to you and try to predict her next move. I'll help you out from there." Robbo said.

"Are you asking me to baby out?" Yang hissed, throwing another missed punch.

"Yeah, pretty much." The hacker said with a deadpan tone. "At least you'll increase your chances of survival to 67% rather than the 0% you're running on right now."

Grunting, Yang fired a blast right in front of her, sending her flying back to the far wall of the train car. Neo's face contorted into that of a sadistic grin and she rushed forwards.

"Yang, get out of there!" Robbo yelled, but it was too late as Neo sprang forwards and clotheslined the brawler, knocking her off of her feet. She then brought her foot down on Yang's head, send her sprawling to the floor.

"No, no, NO!" Robbo yelled as the camera on the earpiece fell sideways and lay still along the floor. All he could do was sit there and watch as Neo pulled a long needle from her umbrella and raise it above her head, strolling slowly towards the unconscious girl. He could only sit and watch.

* * *

As they pushed onwards, they heard a peculiar clunking coming from above. Suddenly, the hatches opened as more White Fang soldiers streamed in. Taking cover, the remainder of Team RWBY ducked behind some crates as bullets flew back and forth. Swinging out from cover, Oliver fired a few quick bursts from his BR55 before ducking back, his shields flickering after taking a hard blast from one goon's blunderbuss. Weiss sighed.

"Let me handle this." She said, stepping out from cover and pointed her rapier at the group of enemies. At the point of the sword, a glyph appeared, and from the glyph flew a massive spike of ice that took out the remainder of the enemies when it was fired.

"See? That wasn't so hard." Weiss said before the door burst open and the big man from earlier walked in, hefting a chainsaw. She turned to her team just in time to see Ruby and Oobleck climb out the hatch.

"We'll take care of any other reinforcements from up here! Good luck Weiss!" Ruby said before disappearing up the hatch and onto the roof, where the sounds of battle could be heard. Her expression drooping, she turned to Blake and Ollie, but they had taken off past the big guy.

"Torchwick is ours! You can take this one, Weiss!" Blake yelled, dashing under the big goon's arm and Ollie simply shoving him aside, snapping Weiss a mock salute. Sighing again, Weiss slipped into her fighting stance.

"Fine. Let's do this."

"Wonderful." Said the big man. "I've always wanted to kill a Schnee."

In the last car, Blake and Ollie were met by Torchwick and his cronies. At Roman's order, bullets were fired and Oliver and Blake ducked behind cover. Grabbing his SMGs off of his back, Ollie slid out of cover and emptied his magazines at the goons, taking out a few of them and causing the others to roll out of the way. Seeing her chance, Blake rushed the now defenceless Torchwick and slammed her knee into his face. Grabbing a rapid-fire pistol, Torchwick levelled the weapon at Blake and fired. Utilizing her semblance, Blake created multiple shadow clones of herself and masterfully dodged the projectiles. A few swift movements later and she struck Torchwick with a hard slash from her sword, then hit his aura hard with a downward cleave of her sword-sheath. Spitting some blood, Roman brought his cane to bear in an attempt to strike his adversary but was interrupted as a hard shot pummelled him in the chest. Looking up, he saw Oliver standing amidst all of his defeated henchmen, a smoking Magnum levelled with his chest.

"Bazinga, asshole."

That was the last thing he heard before Blake slammed her sheath into his chin, knocking him out cold. He hit the ground hard, the singular thump resounding throughout the cabin. Stepping over the fallen criminal, Oliver made his way over to the console. Tapping several buttons and pulling a few levers, he began the braking sequence for the train, which would bring the locomotive to a full stop. As he finished the sequence, he noticed something. Normally, the train would begin to whir as the gears would move a series of metal plates into positions that would cut off the locomotion systems and prevent any forms of movement. Yet, nothing happened. There was only one thing that could have happened.

"Hell." He muttered, retrying the sequence, yet still, nothing happened.

"What is it?" Asked Blake, walking up beside her armoured comrade.

"The brakes are shot. The emergency systems have been removed too. This thing isn't a train, it's a rolling death trap." He said, trying to see if there was a workaround for it, but alas, to no avail. Shaking his head, he stepped back and shot the console several times with his Magnum.

"At least we can keep this speed. Right now, we're sitting at around 100 kph, so the impact shouldn't be as hard as it could, considering that the max speed of trains of this make can go up to about 300, I think." He finished, sliding his Magnum back to its spot at his waist.

"But why would they do that? They would just ruin the equipment they were carrying if they rammed into the end of the track!" Blake said. That's when it hit her, as if by a speeding train. They were never transporting troops or equipment. That's why they had so many Paladins on board so that the operators of the mechs could survive the impact. The bombs were there to open up holes in the tunnels to allow the Grimm to escape and the impact of the train as meant to open up the tunnel to the rest of Vale. Plus the middle carts would be armoured enough to survive a slower speed impact, so troops could be deployed directly into the city as well as with the Grimm, who would run amuck as soon as the tunnel was breached. A very good strategy, to say the least.

"We have to get off of this train!" She exclaimed. "That way we can try to deal with what happens once this train makes impact."

"I couldn't agree more. Let's get off this dead man's roller coaster." Ollie agreed, grabbing his SMGs from his waist. As he said that, Weiss was thrown through the door connecting this car to the one behind it. She landed hard in front of her teammates.

"I thought you said it was easy?" Oliver said somewhat jokingly, stepping up to face the brutish thug with the chainsaw who walked in through the now broken door.

"You of all people shouldn't be joking at times like these!" Weiss growled. Ollie chuckled darkly behind his helmet.

"They do say humour is the ultimate cure." He muttered, transforming his SMGs to their Broadsword form. Blake drew her weapons and walked up beside him, sword in one hand, the sharpened sheath in the other. Moving at a blazingly fast pace, he slashed the thug before he could react, shattering his aura. Blake then followed up by slamming the thug with her sheath and then rending what aura was left over from Ollie's hard attack with Gambol Shroud. Barely conscious, the brutish man took one more step before falling flat on his face, the back of his head swelling in an unsightly bump from where Oliver had slammed him with the pommel of his sword.

"See? Now THAT was easy." Oliver said smugly, much to Weiss's chagrin. "Now let's get off this speeding hunk of junk. For real this time."

But then, Robbo's voice crackled over the intercom.

"Yang's down and Neo's going in for the kill! You gotta get over there!" He yelled desperately. Taking off towards the car Yang was in, Oliver left indents the floor of the train. Crashing through several doors on his way over he came to a stop at the entrance of Yang's car, BR55 at the ready. However, he wasn't expecting to see what he saw. Standing above an unconscious Yang wasn't a bloodthirsty Neo, but instead, a woman dressed in a combination of red and black. In her hand was a long crimson sword, the blade about as long as the woman herself. This type of sword would be classified as an _Odachi_ if Oliver remembered correctly. Neo was over at the far side of the car, looking shocked. However, she wasn't making any moves, so Oliver deduced that it was just an illusion created by the girl's semblance. The real Neo was probably already off of the train by now. He still kept his rifle trained on the strange lady. Around her, there seemed to be a mysterious rain of feathers. Turning to face the armoured man standing in the doorway, the woman merely nodded her head, which Oliver returned. They both understood that they were on the same side. At least, for now. She turned around and with a _swish_ of her sword, she cut open a portal, bathing the car in an otherworldly crimson glow. Stepping into the yawning portal, there was no trace of her ever being there. Nothing but a bundle of raven's feathers.

* * *

Shortly afterwards, Yang woke up. Standing there was Oliver Auburn, rifle at the ready and trained on the door. Groaning, she sat up amidst a mess of what appeared to be raven's feathers. There was a clicking noise in her ear as Robbo was working on an exit solution for the team. Shaking the grogginess from her eyes and getting to her feet, she took the time to examine the feathers strewn around her. She had a hunch but it was confirmed as she held the feather in her hands.

"Mom…"

"So that's who it was," Oliver said, turning around to face her. "There was a sense of familiarity between the two of you."

"Yeah. It has been a while since we've last seen each other though." She said solemnly.

"Ah, parental issues. Fun." Oliver snarkily commented. "I know the feeling. Now come on, we can wallow in our drama later. This train is gonna smash right into Vale, and we need to get off of it." And with that, he turned back and ran back towards their comrades. Following behind him, Yang activated her gauntlets. The satisfying clicks of the different pieces moving into place were like music to her ears.

"Oh, and try not to get yourself in a situation like that again. If Robbo or your mom weren't there, you would've died. We can't have that now, can we? Be more careful next time." Yang perked up as Oliver said that before he took off in a full sprint back to the front of the train.

"What was with the sudden burst of emotion? I thought he was all about the mission and bad jokes." Yang asked Robbo.

"He may not look like it, but he's actually a really big softie for the people on his team, and pretty much anybody. He's been on several fireteams over the course of his career, both as a mercenary and a soldier. Over the course of several conflicts, he's watched his friends die in front of him as they kept on fighting. Then he's transferred to another team and he has to watch it happen again. That's why he usually prefers to go solo on most jobs. He doesn't want to put his team in unnecessary danger when he could just do things himself. People chalk it up to his ego, but he really just wants to make sure his team is safe." Robbo replied, still typing away. "He's seen so many people die, including his family, and has killed so many as well. He just wants to change that part of his life. He wants nothing more than to change and to protect those around him. That includes all of you, even if he never shows it."

Yang nodded solemnly and picked up the pace. Soon the whole team had regrouped in the middle car. Oobleck and ruby had come back inside from the roof of the train having cleared out the rest of the enemies that were on top. However, that didn't mean that the whole train was clear, as a group of thugs smashed through the door that Oliver and Yang had just entered quickly ducking behind cover, the team was about to launch a harsh counterattack, but Robbo's voice crackled over the comms.

"You all have an estimated 60-second timer until the train makes an impact! You need to get out of there, now!" He yelled. Shaking his head, Oliver leaped over the crates he was using as cover and slammed his fist into the first soldier, bringing his Magnum in line with another one and firing, striking the poor man in between the eyes. He then used the falling man as a springboard, launching himself into the air and falling down onto another enemy. Five more shots rang out and five more staggered but didn't fall.

"Get out of here! I'll give you some covering fire!" Ollie yelled, dodging a swing of a sword.

"We aren't leaving you!" Ruby yelled back before she was ushered out by Weiss.

"I'll be right behind you, don't worry." He responded, a wave of composure washing over him as he took in a deep breath. Taking a few steps back, his shields flared as bullets made several impacts with it, and he narrowly sidestepped a powerful downward stroke of a mace. He responded with a smashing punch to the thug's face. Riding the momentum from the follow-through, he took another step before boosting up onto the wall of the car. He pushed off of it and grabbed another man's face, before slamming the guy into the ground, and then raising his hand to catch a sword blade. He buckled a little bit from the force of the impact but he didn't fall. He wouldn't fall. He felt a biting pain in his back as more bullets struck his shield. The physical damage was dispersed but he still felt the harsh impact of each of the projectiles. His shield gauge started to flash before they popped. Rolling back to cover, he looked over to see that Yang had disappeared up the hatch.

"15 seconds, buddy! You're cutting it close!" Roberto said, a panicky edge to his voice.

"Relax, I got a plan for this one." The Spartan muttered. Rushing to the hatch, he closed it, making sure that the mechanisms were solid. He then turned to the remaining goons.

"If you want to live, I want everyone against the back wall, now! Clear all the crates! We only have a few seconds!" He ordered. Shocked, the White Fang goons complied, backing up against the back wall.

"I want everyone to lean against the wall! Make sure all the crates are against the wall as well!" Oliver said over the din of the train, as it began to reach the end of the track. Pushing one last crate up to the back wall, he made sure his body was flat up against it. The other soldiers followed suit. They all looked a little skeptical, but if the armoured juggernaut next to them was doing it, then maybe they should too. Within a few seconds, a voice came over the intercom.

"Impact in 5!"

4…

3…

2…

"BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

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	17. Chapter 17: Clot

The city centre was a mess. Shaking the debris off of her body, Ruby Rose stood up on shaky legs, propping herself up on her scythe. Looking over at Weiss, she was relieved to see her with the rest of her team, including Professor Oobleck. She simply gave a thumbs up, which Ruby returned. Feeling the swimming feeling in her head dissipate, she made her way over to her friends. Besides a few bruises and scratches, Team RWBY had more or less emerged unscathed thanks to Weiss's ice shield, which had engulfed them mere moments before the train crashed. However, there was one thing that caught their attention.

"Where's Ollie?" The armoured soldier had stayed behind in the cart in order to prevent the thugs from attacking his escaping teammates, yet he never came out. But before anyone could think about it any more, there was a rumbling from beneath their feet, and a massive King Taijitu burst out from the concrete, tearing the huntresses-in-training from their thoughts. Now was the time for action.

* * *

 **Below Ground.**

Picking himself up, Oliver "Auburn" A-019 got back onto his feet. The impact had knocked him flat onto his back, but he hadn't been caught flat-footed. Getting up quickly, he surveyed the room. Scattered around the ruined train car was the dazed, yet alive, forms of several White Fang fighters. Groaning, they all worked up the strength to get back up. They all froze the moment they saw the hulking metal figure in front of them.

"Relax. I'm not looking for a fight. At least, not now. Our primary objective is to get out of here. Odds are, there are subterranean Grimm flooding into Vale, and we'll still be trapped down here surrounded by vicious monsters or several tons of rock." He said, helping one of the more injured men to his feet. "Do you carry any drills on this train?"

"Y-Yes, sir. There's some in crate 6. We carry them in case of cave-ins." One said, pointing to one of the overturned boxes. Nodding, Oliver flipped crate 15 over so that the contents of the box were revealed. Inside were four industrial-grade high-powered drills. Picking one up, he clicked the power button and felt a satisfying hum as the drill whirred to life. Looking around, he saw that there were 8 other White Fang survivors in this car.

"Everyone, get into pairs. Grab your weapons too. The moment we get topside, or rather, out of this train car, we have to be ready for a fight. One soldier drills, the other covers them. We're tunnelling our way out of here. If my calculations are correct, we should be within two blocks of Vale City Square. Grab yourselves some equipment, and let's move!" He ordered. The troops moved without objection. As much as they hated working with a human, they needed to work together to get out of this hellhole. Grabbing drills, they watched in awe as the armoured man tore the train door off of its hinges, and throwing it aside with a grunt. Stepping out, the group moved forwards in a loose formation, weapons raised. The tunnel was in pretty bad shape, Grimm were wandering around the place, and there was a large rubble barricade blocking the tunnel's exit. Moving ahead slowly, the group focused their aim on the cluster of crimson eyes that lay just beyond the group. Several hunch-backed Creeps lumbered towards the group of survivors while a pack of Beowolves stalked their prey.

"I want everyone in a circle! Cover each other and cut the Grimm down in the crossfire! Stagger your reloading as well! Make sure there's always someone firing! Move!" Oliver commanded. Against Grimm that had no ranged attacks, any cover was irrelevant, so all they had to do was make sure they could keep them out of melee range. Forming up in a circular formation, bullets started flying outwards as the Grimm rushed forwards. Raising his SMGs, he sprayed down the monsters with a steady stream of bullets. The Dust bullets made quick work of the monsters of darkness. The other survivors seemed to be doing good as well, but the stream of Grimm appeared to be never-ending, as more and more emerged to take the places of those that had fallen. However, they had fought fiercely and had managed to secure some breathing room.

"Break formation!" Ollie yelled. "I want us to start drilling into that wall and get us moving to the surface! Move!" The fighters snapped out of their laser-focus and ran for the wall of the tunnel. One of them grabbed a drill off of his back and slammed the drill bit into the wall. It whirred to life and began to eat away at the concrete of the tunnel wall. Three of his comrades came up next to him and began to drill as well. Behind him, the armoured man and the others were firing away at the Grimm. He stopped briefly to watch in awe as the soldier in the gray armour gunned down dozens of the monsters with laser accuracy.

"Jay, focus! C'mon!" One of his friends yelled next to him, snapping Jay out of his stupor.

"Right!" He started drilling again. Behind he heard some curses as the monsters began to encroach on their position. They very slowly, yet surely, breaking through their firing line. There was some more frantic fighting and the monsters had reached a point of which they could effectively attack, forcing the firing line back.

"Dammit, I'm out." One of the shooters said, dropping his now useless firearm.

"Swap with one of the drillers! Fast, hurry!" One of the gunners yelled. Handing off his drill, the man known as 'Jay' grabbed his rifle from off his back and began firing, replacing the gunner who had replaced him. He gunned down a few of the incoming Grimm before one tackled him from the side. Warm slobber splashed across his face. He fired a three-round burst into the gut of the offending Beowolf, but it merely howled and attempted to bash his head in. Jerking his head to the side, the clawed paw slammed into the ground next to his head. He knew he wouldn't be as lucky the next time around. However, Jay watched as the Beowolf was grabbed by the arm and lifted upwards. The soldier in the heavy armour jammed his SMG into the gut of the monster and fired, the bullets passing right through the beast with brutal, visceral, kinetic power. Black gore flew every which way before the 3-second long onslaught was over. Dropping the dissolving corpse, the man offered his hand to Jay, who eagerly took it.

"We all need to move. The tunnel is done, so let's move! To the surface!" Was all the man said, before sprinting into the freshly dug tunnel, followed by Jay and the rest of the gunmen. Standing at the end of the tunnel were the drillers. But they had stopped drilling. Shaking their heads, the quickly explained the situation.

"The concrete here is a different composite. We can't get through it in time." One of them said. It was true. Vale concrete was made stronger to protect against stuff like this to prevent excess damage during demolitions. However, there was one thing it was weak against. Focused blunt force. Rushing forwards, Oliver smashed his hand into the concrete, a spiderweb of cracks blossoming from the point of impact. He punched again. Crack. He punched again. And again. And again. Crack.

"They're right behind us!" Came a yell as gunfire filled the enclosed space. One more punch. The concrete finally gave way. His fist plowed right through the stone floor and out into the street. Quickly bodyslamming the concrete, the armoured man smashed up and out into the road. Jay quickly followed suit and jumped up and out. The rest of the survivors climbed out, and as soon as they were clear, the man pulled a grenade from his belt and pulled the pin before chucking it into the freshly made hole. There were a few seconds of pure growling before a loud boom and the rumbling of stone as the tunnel collapsed and caved in on itself. Jay let out a sigh of relief that he didn't know he had been holding. Turning to face them, the armoured man spoke.

"You aren't safe here. I don't wanna get you all arrested, so first thing's first, ditch the uniforms. Then make for the manhole cover in an alleyway along the road two blocks north of this one. There should be a sewer junction under that cover, and you want to follow the tunnel that's marked with a yellow star. That will take you to the Vale Underground. Once you're there, head to this address in the western quadrant and recite the passphrase written on the back and tell them that 'Ollie sent you.' Got it?" He ordered, handing Jay a piece of paper. Jay nodded slowly. Taking off his mask, the others followed suit.

"Thank you." Was all he got out before the man snapped him a loose salute and turned around, diving back into the action. For a human, he wasn't half bad. He wasn't bad at all. It was all a little surprising since he had slammed Cameron's head into the ground only a few seconds before telling everyone to back up against the wall and effectively saving their lives. Either way, Jay was grateful. Motioning at his comrades, who had stripped off their White Fang uniforms, they quickly ducked into the alleyway that Oliver had told them to find. Following his instructions, the group made it to a vast cavern. Standing at the opening of the tunnel, they were greeted by a guard. The guard simply opened a gate that led them all into an open-air elevator, which lowered them into a sprawling underground shanty-town. They made their way to the western quadrant and quickly found themselves at the address Ollie had given them. Knocking on the door, Jay stood at the door.

"Who's there?" Came the voice on the other side, along with the clicking of a revolver being cocked.

"Some people in need of help," Jay replied. "Quickly."

"And why should I let you in?" Was the response.

"Give the late bloomers some shelter, or they start to die." Recited Jay. He relaxed as he heard the deadbolt being undone and the door soon opened. Standing there was a skinny man carrying a revolver and wearing a coffee-stained white t-shirt. Smirking, he ushered the group inside.

"Ollie, what the hell did you do this time?" He muttered.

* * *

 **Back on the Surface.**

Rushing down the road, Oliver killed yet another Grimm with a well-placed burst from his BR55. The monsters were truly all over the place. Sweeping in with a low kick, he brought one Beowolf low as he blew out one of its legs and then stabbed it in the eye with a combat knife, killing it instantly. A quick kill, and something he had found himself doing a lot on the hard battle towards the city centre. He mostly found himself weaving in between the monsters instead of outright fighting them.

 _Oh, God, if you do exist, all I want is a Warthog. Please, all I want is a Warthog. I've never been religious, but all I want is a Warthog. ANY WARTHOG. EVEN A SCOUT HOG, BUT PLEASE GOD I WANT A WARTHOG._ He mentally pleaded. And if life was spitting in his face, a Boarbatusk slammed into him from behind. His shields popped and his felt the hard impact of the concrete against his helmet. Turning around, he stabbed the Boarbatusk in the stomach several times before it died.

"Next time, I'm praying to Satan." The Spartan grumbled before breaking out into another run. Duck rolling to the side, he dodged another Boarbatusk while also moving out of the proximity of a group of Beowulves. There were a lot of the Grimm clogging the streets, and he couldn't fight all of them without any form of heavy armour. Jamming one of his knives into another monster, he looked desperately for an opening, and thankfully, he found one. Taking off in yet another full sprint, he made a mad dash for the side of one the buildings. Leaping up, he shot up about 10 feet and grasped onto a window ledge. Swinging his legs back and forth, Oliver generated enough force to eventually swing upwards and elevate him some more. He soon found himself on the roof of the building. Having the high ground, he surveyed his surroundings. What he saw wasn't good. The sky was dotted with Nevermores, and the streets were like swirling pits of black, with Grimm dashing here and there. However, they were all converging on one spot. The city centre, where most of the fighting was. That was where he was needed, but another set of guns wouldn't be enough to hold off the Grimm. What he could do was hold the Grimm off here. It sounded like a suicide mission, but if he managed to cut off one of the major arteries that the Grimm were coming in by, then he could probably help lessen the load over there. However, jumping down and fighting outright would definitely be a suicide mission. But since he had the high ground, it was pretty much over. Grabbing his SMGs, he fired into the mass of monsters beneath them, their ranks rippling like waves as the deadly hailstorm of pain rained down on them. Hurling a grenade into the fray, there was a big boom followed by more howls. Yet, the Grimm still marched on. It was clear that they would only stop for one thing. A new target.

He briefly thought about jumping down to engage the beasts there and then, but he decided to take a more reserved approach instead. Opening the door that would have lead to the roof, he made his way down several flights of stairs. On each floor, he would tape a grenade to the wall, and link it to a detonator. It paid to be prepared. Reaching the bottom floor, he made sure to check every room to ensure that there were no civilians left inside when the whole thing went up. He had learned his lesson. Thankfully, there were none left. Hopefully whoever lived or worked here were safe and sound. Taking off in a jog, he opened the door and took off in a sprint, jumping and kicking one of the dark monsters in the jaw, snapping its neck. Grabbing his SMGs off of his hips, he swung about and fired bursts at the clusters of Grimm. Swing one of his arms under his armpit he blasted one sneaky Beowolf that had attempted to surprise the Spartan. He then whipped around to slam another one of the wolves with his elbow. He now had the Grimm's full attention now, with them all converging on his position. Quickly reloading, he brought both of his weapons to bear, spraying in all directions and taking down the creatures with lethal efficiency. Upon running out of ammo in both of his SMGs, and realizing he had no reserves left, he flipped the switch that converted them into their melee forms. So instead of shooting, he took to stabbing and slashing. He threw a heavy right hook and followed up with a powerful slash with his left hand at one of the alphas of the pack, removing its head from its body. But none of his efforts were enough, as the enemies kept on coming. It was like the hydra, if he chopped off one head, then two more heads would move forward to replace it. Spinning and slicing the neck of yet another Beowolf, and jumping to dodge an incoming Boarbatusk, he knew that there were too many for him. He could, however, thin their numbers a bit. Attaching his twin swords to each other, he formed a single longsword, which he swung around his head in a wide arc, killing some of the beasts and garnering him some breathing room. Grabbing the detonator from his belt, he took a deep breath and pushed the button.

There was a moment of tense silence that was quickly shattered by the loud booming of the grenades. Within moments, everything came crashing down, burying a large amount of the dark creatures beneath a massive pile of rubble. Fighting his way towards the ruins, Oliver cut through swaths of Grimm with brutal pace. One stab to the chest, a slash to the neck, a kick to the legs. One of the beasts grappled him from behind, to which he responded with an elbow to the gut. With its grip now loosened, he hurled the wounded monster into the rest of its brethren, knocking them all off balance. But as he recovered from the follow through of the throw, a Creep slammed into his side. His shields flared. Staggering back a little, he half-heartedly swung his sword at the armoured creature, but the light swing did nothing more than scratch the boney plating that adorned its head. His shields took another hit as a Beowolf slashed him in the back. Detaching the twin swords from their broadsword form, he stabbed the Beowolf directly in the chin, thrusting upwards and spearing it through the head. Another Grimm, this time, an Ursa Major, lumbered in and swiped at the Spartan with one of its big paws. Jumping backwards to avoid the blow, Ollie landed in the attack zone of a Boarbatusk, which attempted to gore him with its tusks. The hooked protrusions dug into his back, shattering his shields. Grunting, Ollie dashed around the pig-like Grimm and drew one of his swords down the length of the Boarbatusk's body, killing it. Weaving in between the monster's bodies, he managed to reach his makeshift barricade. Standing atop the rubble, he grabbed his pistol in one hand and hefted his broadsword in the other.

"Bazinga, motherfuckers."

The first of the Grimm attempted to climb up the wall of rubble and was quickly shut down by a precise shot between the eyes. Another one came up from the opposite side and was met with a bisecting swing of his Broadsword. As much as he hated last stands, this looked to be one of those situations. However, he needed to slow the tide of Grimm to give the warriors currently fighting for their lives in the city square a chance, and closing off one of the major arteries would be the best thing to do. So it was decided. Until - if backup ever arrived, he would hold this position. And he would do it to his last breath.

"Is anyone on this channel? If there is anyone, this is Oliver Auburn of Beacon Academy, requesting immediate assistance! I need backup, dammit!" He yelled into his radio. This was a public channel and also a traceable signal, so anyone in Signal Intelligence with half a brain would know what to do.

Levelling his pistol with the crowd, he fired, striking the biggest targets first. Several of the Alphas and the Ursai fell as they had their heads blown apart by high-impact Magnum rounds. He then followed up with a devastating swing that destroyed several of the Grimm attempting to climb up from the opposite side. Turning around again, he stabbed and forced back a small Deathstalker, forcing it back down the side of the barricade. The same sequence played out for the next five minutes, yet it felt like 50 for Oliver. The constant attack, not to mention the ever-present threat from both angles as well as the relentless amount of Grimm all amounted to his growing fatigue. Soon he faced attack from another angle, with a swarm of Nevermores raining their razor-sharp feathers down upon him. Running up and down the barricade, Ollie fended off the two-front assault. Rolling into a crouching position, he fired the remainder of his magazine into the exposed underside of a climbing Boarbatusk. As he dropped the empty magazine and reached for a new one, an Alpha Beowolf appeared from behind him and bit him hard in the shoulder. The pressure was insane, and his shields popped and his bodysuit was punctured. A spray of blood erupted from the vicious wound. Letting out a grunt of pain, Oliver swung his sword at the Alpha in an attempt to knock it off. This Alpha was definitely one of the older members of this pack, as it preemptively dodged the desperate slash. Taking his opportunity, the Spartan willed his injured pistol arm to move and reload. Then, through sheer willpower and mental fortitude, forced his finger to close around the trigger. He let out a yelp of pure pain as the recoil of the hefty sidearm kipped his arm back, sending blood flying everywhere. The bullet passed through the Alpha's abdomen but didn't slow it down as it rushed right for its injured quarry. Shifting his stance, Ollie twisted his body while swinging his sword. His right leg shifted forwards, and his right arm swung faster than he had ever moved it.

 _Swish._

The blade passed cleanly through the middle of the Alpha, the top and bottom halves of the dissolving corpse hitting the ground behind him. This one was dead, but there was no time to celebrate. Another group of Grimm had made the climb and now stood atop the mountain of ruined stone, murder evident in their eyes. Cocking his head to the side, as if to accept their challenge, the Spartan rushed forwards, his pistol arm hanging limply by his side. 1,2,3,4. 4 quick swings took down that group. But the fight was far from over. Despite having only one working arm, Oliver kept fighting. Cleaving another Grimm in two, he dodged a reckless swipe from a Ursai's paw and responded with his own slash, which gashed open the bear-like monster's midsection. Moving past the falling corpse, he delivered another harsh strike to another beast trying to make the climb, beheading it. His shoulder wound was bleeding quite profusely now. Was this how his teammates felt? Bleeding out in the heat of battle, consciousness slowly slipping away like grains of sand slipping between their fingers? Like Emile? Like Carter? Blackness tinged the outskirts of vision as a fuzzy feeling he had dismissed to the back of his minds began to grow more and more prominent. He began to slip. Another unnecessary hit there, with a hard slash to his back. Another unneeded bit of damage there, with a hard bodyslam from a Creep. Shields were down, ammo was depleted, and his injured arm had lost all feeling. He would be lucky to not lose it at this point. A smaller Beowolf had managed to clamber up the rubble and caught his leg in a bite. It didn't pierce his armour, but it locked him in place long enough for an Ursa Major to smash him in the back of the helmet. The darkness rimming his vision splashed all across his field of view.

 _Is this it? Is this how I die? Being gnawed on by a bunch of bad anime monsters and Alfred Hitchcock rejects?_ He thought as he desperately attempted to regain his footing, but was bashed by the Ursa again. Growling, he forced the large Grimm off of his back and kicked the Beowolf's head it, releasing his leg from its maw. Scrambling back onto his feet, more and more of the black-furred demons were climbing up onto the barricade. Pure, unadulterated bloodlust was evident in their eyes. _This is how I disappear._

Grabbing his Machete, Oliver stared down the Cpack of incoming monsters. If he was going to die, then he would at least go out knowing that he wasn't easy prey. Taking a look at his vitals, he had lost about 3 pints of blood at this point. A class 3 hemorrhage. At this point, he definitely needed a blood transfer and was steadily approaching the threshold that a human could withstand. Any more and he would be at severe risk of Hypovolemic Shock, which would shut down his organs. Despite all of his augmentations, he was still human. And humans could still die. There was no time to dwell on this though. The Grimm charged. Raising his Machete, he cut down the first few and managed to kill off the first couple of waves. But as he looked out into the throng of beasts, he noticed bigger variants like Deathstalkers. Not to mention the Nevermores that would consistently swoop in to make his life harder. He was lucky none of those demon birds appeared to be older than 2-3 cycles, otherwise, he'd be already dead.

"Goddammit, what the HELL are you ASSHATS up in SigInt doing?" He barked. "I'm about to go into goddamn Hypovolemic Shock, so I need some help down here!" He cut down another Beowolf, followed by a low flying Nevermore having its wings clipped. The fighting went on for another five minutes before he finally got a response.

"Sorry, I was on my break! I'm tracing your signal, Atlas forces have already been dispatched." Came a panicked voice. There appeared to be a mess of voices in the background. SigInt was in a complete panic with overlap on voice channels as well as lots of orders being yelled. Things weren't going well over there as well.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, crazy day at the office," Oliver said, chopping down another Grimm. "Happens all the time. Maybe next time, you could do better by ACTUALLY DOING YOUR DAMN JOB!"

"Sorry!"

Well, at least he felt a little better. A little bit of banter to take his mind off of the cloudiness that was inhabiting his brain. The blood loss was really getting to him. By now, the Grimm's ranks had thinned out, with only the ones in the back being the only ones standing. Probably due to the reinforcements that had been dropped into the city centre and throughout the city. Guarding against another strike, Ollie caught a glimpse of a large mass in the distance.

"Hey, that better not be a flock of Nevermores or your death is gonna involve a painful castration." He growled at the Beowolf he was standing on, which was writhing underneath him. Luckily for the Grimm, it was an Atlesian flagship. Appearing out thin air accompanied by several Bullhead dropships, they opened fire on the dark beasts. Ollie let out a sigh of relief. Backup was here. Quickly stabbing the Grimm beneath him with his Machete, he looked up to see a Bullhead slow down and hover right behind him, with a full platoon of Atlesian Troops jumping out and onto the barricade. They all settled into a firing line next to him. The one next to him was shaking a little bit and gulped when he noticed Oliver looking at him.

"First engagement?" He asked.

"Y-Yeah. I was on homeland security for a couple months before this though." He shakily responded.

"Ah, well this situation isn't too different from homeland. You just stand on the wall and shoot everything else to death." Ollie joked. The soldier next to him gulped again. "What's your name, kid?"

"Private Steff Cato." Was the response.

"Well then, Private Cato. Good luck. And can I have your sidearm?" Cato handed over his pistol. Flipping it around in his hand a couple times and examining, Cato could have sworn he heard the armoured man next to him mutter the words "No adaptive chambering? So uncivilized."

He was snapped back to attention when a low growl could be heard from the ranks of the Grimm.

"Let's make this a quick one. I'm about to bleed out here, so if I collapse, it's your fault for taking too bloody long."

And with that, the soldiers opened fire. Their aim wasn't bad, It was far from the precise marksmanship of his Spartans, or the brutal efficiency of the Harbinger ODSTs, but it was passable for a homeland security force. They managed to score some hefty hits on the larger targets, defeating the Grimm in quick succession. The standard Atlas sidearm that Cato had lent him didn't really have much in the way of power or accuracy and was inferior compared to his favoured M6D Magnum. Even if they didn't make them the same since 2552. Despite the poor quality of their firearms, the Grimm were no less than completely destroyed. That was good because Oliver was starting to let his consciousness slip. Stepping onboard the dropship, he was finally able to catch a breath since the engagement had begun. Knowing that he was in safe hands now, he let sleep take him as the muddy darkness transformed into a complete inky black.

* * *

 **Later.**

Despite the beating he had taken, his armour had taken most of the hits, He would need to do some major repairs over the break, but he was fine except for the harsh bite wound that Alpha had given him. The doctors did confirm that he was only minutes away from a full Hypovolemic Shock, and any longer and he wouldn't have made it. He was still discharged from the infirmary though, as there were many others who needed the treatment more than him. His augmentations helped with his healing process and a simple blood transfusion was all that he really needed. And so he looked out on a beautiful Vale sunset at the end of a horrific day. Luckily, there was no damage from him blowing the building apart, since Goodwitch turned up and repaired everything with her semblance. That was good because that building had cost an estimated 20 million Lien, and Ollie didn't have that type of cash. That would've been fun for the insurance brokers.

"Hey."

Turning around, Oliver saw his teammates arriving. They looked a little worse for wear, but they looked fine for now. Must be nice to have an aura.

"Hey." He responded, settling down and looking back out on the cityscape. "You four holding up alright?"

"Aside from a few scratches, we're fine. Those beasts didn't know what hit 'em!" Yang exclaimed, sitting down next to Ollie. The rest of the team settled down too. Everyone looked more or less exhausted from the hectic day.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one who couldn't catch a breather." He commented, to the nods of agreement coming from the others. They shared a brief moment of silence before Oliver spoke up again.

"So, my secret's out, huh? I guess this is it." He said.

"What do you mean, 'this is it?'" Asked Weiss, leaning over.

"Well, it's confirmed that I am responsible for the deaths of innocents and carried out several illegal activities, and they said that you could have your Praesidium member transferred off at the end of this semester." He explained, leaning back and looking straight up at the orange sky. "I mean, there's no reason you should keep me on."

"But we don't have a good reason for sending you off either," Blake spoke up. "You taught us this. Just because someone's done something in the past doesn't mean they should be judged for it in the now."

"Yeah, and we probably would've bitten the dust back there if you hadn't held that street. That was a lot of Grimm." Yang added.

"Plus, I guess you are sort of helpful, so it would be a waste to have someone with your skills transferred off." Weiss also added, in her typical fashion.

"Hehe, thanks. Yeah, I guess I was a bit stupid there. But thanks anyway." He chuckled, standing up. "C'mon, let's get some sleep. I need to recover the energy that was lost when I had 40% of my blood spill out onto the street." Everyone let out a couple chuckles at that. That stopped when they realized that he had lost almost half of his blood. Without another word, the girls all left for the dorm room. All except Ruby. The normally bubbly girl was looking sombre and downcast. Shooting her a concerned look, Oliver went over and sat down next to her.

"What's wrong? And don't hit me with that 'oh, nothing' bullcrap." He asked.

"Heh, I was gonna say 'oh, nothing' before you said that. No, it's nothing big. It's just that I haven't been doing much in terms of helping the team." She said.

"In what sense? You're the team leader! Brilliant leading Team RWBY into the heat of battle, striking down your foes with the power of your righteousness, right?"

"Yeah, but that's exactly my problem! I haven't done anything as a team leader. Or at least, nothing good." She said, looking even sadder than before. "I wasn't able to help bring my team together, and I wasn't able to help you guys out during the big fights. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have been in this mess! It was me who feel in that sinkhole at Mt. Glenn."

"But you hadn't fallen in, then most of Vale would've been destroyed by now." Oliver shot back. "You are supposed to be the team leader, right? Then rally your team! If you aren't seeing yourself as a leader, then change that outlook. Become who you want to be." Ruby sniffled a little bit.

"Then how do you do it? You're just so good at everything. I can't do what you do!" She sobbed some. It was obvious this was something she had needed to get off of her chest.

"Look, I'm gonna level with you here and not sugarcoat any of this." He started. "I've been in command of multiple teams before, this isn't new to me, but it's new for you. You can't do the things I do, because you don't have the experience yet. You're you and I'm me. It takes time, Ruby. You may not be strong now, but you have so much potential. Heck, you're one of the youngest recorded Beacon inductees ever! That speaks volumes of your skill. One quote that I greatly enjoy and live by is this: Legends are not simply born. They are willed into existence. You have the ability to be that legend. It's just gonna take a little bit of patience and work. Now, come on, you can't be a team leader looking as sad as that. Keep your head high and lead with confidence. Because at the end of the day, I know there are lots of people that look up to you. You just have to fill that image yourself." He concluded his speech by standing up and offering his leader his hand.

"C'mon, let's head back." Ruby grinned a little.

"Yeah. Thanks, Ollie. Thanks a lot."

"Anytime, boss."

* * *

 **This concludes Volume 2 of the canon show. I'll probably have an interlude of sorts to tie up any loose ends before we begin Volume 3. Thank you all for reading, and have a fantastic 2019.**

 **Music Listened To While Writing:**

 **Late Bloomer EP by Jordan Thornquest**

 **Afraid of Heights by Billy Talent**

 **1901 by Phoenix**

 **Trench album by Twenty One Pilots**

 **Harlem by New Politics**

 **Wolfman by The Front Bottoms**

 **Breaking Up My Bones by Vinyl Theatre**

 **Kalani album by Mains and Monitors**

" **Awaken, My Love!" album by Childish Gambino**

 **These artists made staying up till 2 in the morning to finish this chapter bearable. Give them a listen, they really saved my life.**


	18. Chapter 18: The Cave Goes Deeper

"When did these elevators get so slow?"

Standing in the slow-moving vertical carriage, Oliver "Auburn" A-019 prepared for his upcoming debriefing. Unlike the other meetings he'd had with Ozpin, he wasn't wearing his Mjolnir armour and instead opted for a more casual look. He wore a pair of shorts and a simple t-shirt that had a design of a happy face saying "death is just post-birth abortion." The elevator opened with a ding and sitting at his desk, as always, was Professor Ozpin of Beacon Academy. Looking up from his endless pile of documents, the headmaster gave Oliver a grin and a slight wave, ushering him into the room.

"Another day at the office, huh?" Oliver asked, gesturing at the large stack of papers and the mess of loose documents that adorned Ozpin's desk. Since the attack in Vale Central, there had been an influx of paperwork for Ozpin to look through, mostly damage control and PR stuff.

"Unfortunately, it has been a very taxing day indeed," Ozpin replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "The higher-ups are skeptical about the security of Vale and Beacon."

"Does this mean we're pulling out of the Vytal Festival?" Oliver asked.

"No. Most certainly not. Showing weakness like this will only give Salem the motivation and confirmation she needs that attacks like that have a public effect. We will not give her any ground nor the satisfaction."

"Yes, sir."

Nothing much of note happened after that. Oliver gave a full debriefing of his actions during the attack and all the events leading up.

"So they know you were a mercenary?" Ozpin asked once the Spartan was finished, to Ollie's nod.

"Yeah. They took it surprisingly well. Better than I anticipated. Hopefully we can actually start moving forward as a team now, having put all of this bullshit behind us. Everyone has their problems, but once we're done with them, we can start growing as people." Ollie replied, crossing his arms. "Speaking of which, I actually have a training session with the girls in about half an hour. Do I have permission to leave? You know how some people get about this." As he said that, his Scroll was bombarded by a storm of messages from one Weiss Schnee, saying that he better be there for training, or there was going to be a nasty surprise in his pillowcase that night.

"Yes, you may leave. Have fun, Mr. Auburn." Ozpin chuckled. Ollie snapped his usual loose salute before jogging back to the elevator and leaving. No matter what, conversations with Oliver were always something he enjoyed. It always brought a bit of fun into his days of monotony. That sense of loftiness instantly vanished as a new stack of paperwork was brought up by an equally exhausted Glynda. Life as an immortal certainly got boring. And today was no exception.

* * *

 **The Arena**

Ollie arrived at the second stop of the day. The arena. Today was a team training session, and it was the first time Oliver had ever been to one. With all the drama going on and the recent attacks and his own work, he never had any time to drop in on one of the sessions. But today, Weiss had demanded he show up since they needed all hands on deck for the preparations for the Vytal Festival. Since his Mjolnir was still all messed up, he had left it at Robbo's place for safe keeping. For the time being, he just wore his street clothes. On the arena floor was Yang, who was already going through her warm-up routine of 200 pushups. She was on 124. Make that 125.

"Hey, Ollie." She said nonchalantly, bringing her pushup total to 126.

"Hey, Yang." He replied, stretching a bit. Checking his Scroll, he saw that he still had 15 minutes until the rest of the team was scheduled to show up, so he decided to follow Yang's lead and started an 'easy' warm-up of 30 laps around the arena at full sprint. Without his armour, he could manage a speed of 40 kph at full speed, and he could hit 50 if he really pushed it. Starting off at a light jog, he started at 20, then 30, then hitting 40, before exerting more effort and reaching 45. At the fifteen minute mark when Weiss walked in, he was on Lap 23.

"Hey, Weiss." The two training warriors said before they resumed their activities. Weiss just sighed. _Let them finish. Don't bother them. Just do your warm up._ She told herself mentally as she watched Yang finish her pushups and move on to 200 sit-ups and Ollie quickly finish his run and then proceed to do the same. This was going to be a long session.

Soon after those two had finished their 'warm-ups', Ruby and Blake arrived. Taking initiative, Weiss wasted no time by ordering Oliver to demonstrate his capabilities.

"We know that you can fight, but I want to see how well you can fight up close." She said while walking over to the terminal attached to the side of the wall. Pressing a few buttons, racks carrying inactive Atlesian Knights emerged from the wall. At her command, the robots shuddered before coming to life in a symphony of whirrs. The freshly awakened drones assumed fighting stances and began to approach Oliver.

"Are you ready? Show us how you fight." Weiss said before tapping a button on the console. The lights on the robots turned from their usual bright white to an aggressive red. Like a pack of wolves, the robots began to circle the lone Spartan. Easing into a simple fighting stance, he eyed his opponents. He counted at least 20. This is where the fun begins. In an organized fashion, they lined up into groups before one of the robots sprinted forward, arm cocked back and ready to deliver a punch. Quickly ducking under the strike, Oliver stuck out his foot as he did so, sweeping out the legs of the robot. Acting quickly, he grabbed the enemy's head module and jerked hard to the left, then to the right, snapping its 'neck.' Since these were robotic targets, he could go all out. As he stood up, another one ran forward, followed by another. Knowing that this was a simple tactic of a 1-2 punch type attack, Ollie knew how to counter with his own. Charging forward, he abruptly stopped his movement by kicking back, allowing him to move on a new vector. He started on a diagonal angle to the right of the front bot, who had swung and missed its attack. Making a beeline for the bot in the back, Oliver swung his leg around in a roundhouse kick. The attack connected with the spine of the robot, the impact so hard that sparks flew from the torn wires. And before the first robot could react, Oliver was upon it, grabbing its leg and raising it above his head. Slamming it down like a spear, its neck bent at an unnatural angle, which was worsened when Oliver stomped down hard on it. 17 left. 5 more rushed ahead this time.

They all attacked at the same time, probably in an attempt to overwhelm him. Of course, this no problem for him, as he had taken on 50 rebels unarmed before he repurposed a fallen SMG to take out another 50, so this would be easy. Meeting their charge, he jumped and planted his knee into the head of the first one. Landing behind the falling drone, he moved on to plant a hard undercut into the abdomen of his next target, knocking back. He then performed a back-kick on another enemy coming up behind him. A punch there. A hard kick there. Grabbing one of their heads, Oliver pushed it down while delivering a kick to another robot, taking it out of the fight. He then through the first bot to the ground and stomped down hard on its neck. The remaining two rushed in for a finishing blow in the last ditch attempt to bring the Spartan down. One came in for a punch and the last one was looking for an opening to plant an uppercut. Basic moves that were all easily countered. Shifting his weight, Oliver swung to the side of the bot throwing the punch, causing it to miss. He then grabbed it by the shoulders and pulled it around into the uppercut of the bot in the back. There was a loud crash and the sound of clanging metal. Another one bites the dust. One more to go. The disoriented robot didn't notice as the Spartan rushed forward and socked it hard in the 'jaw' before push-kicking it hard. 12 left.

Whirling on the group of Knights, they all drew batons out of a compartment on their hips. It would make no difference. After all, he had to give the girls a good show. The first of twelve came in for an overhead strike, which he caught. Wrenching the weapon from his enemy's hand, he proceeded to slam it into its faceplate. The blow consequently broke the baton in the process. Running right at the remainder of them, Oliver used the first of them as a springboard to vault himself over their front lines, before proceeding to kick one of the drones in the back of their ranks at full extension. 10 left. Dropping to his knees, he swept out the legs of another while springing to his feet and grappling the bot adjacent to him. He then dropped back down, slamming the Knight's face into the arena floor. Getting back up and assuming his fighting stance, he set his sights on the 9 remaining enemies. On the sidelines, the girls watched on as Ollie decimated another target by grabbing its arm and pulling it into a harsh bodyslam, followed by a powerful punch. Gone was the air of happy-go-lucky teammate or the deadly serious soldier, but was replaced with the aura of an experienced brawler. His strikes were precise, yet at some moments messy and unorthodox. He was flowing with the direction of the battle, taking the paths of least resistance. Yang, being the close range expert of the group, had begun to break down his fighting style.

 _Seeing as the Knight is going for a swing to the temple, he'll stop his momentum and counterattack with either a punch to the temple or a left-side kick._ She predicted mentally as she watched the robot swing its arm in a wide arc. True to her predictions, Oliver kipped backwards a little before swinging his left leg around and into the side of the drone, throwing it to the side. He then receded back into his stance. It was a basic, yet versatile, stance, with his legs at shoulder width apart and his arms raised in a manner that would let him strike and block either high or low. This simple stance let him throw a variety of attacks that would, in turn, lead into their own attacks and combinations. For all intents and purposes, Oliver could have easily used a more advanced stance, yet he stuck with this baseline and used it as a launchpad that would let him deal more damage. A very smart move, Yang noted. This was something he had been trained in, and it must've been for quite a while, seeing how comfortable he was on the battleground. Combined with his usage of fast movement and tricky footwork, he was truly a threat, armed or unarmed, or hell, even using only his legs. _Nice kick._ She commented as the number of enemies was reduced to 8.

Back with Oliver, he had just removed another target from the battle and was now focusing on the last group. They were all clustered together in a way that would make it hard for him to engage without taking some hard hits. Seeing as there was one outlier who was about a foot farther away than the rest of them, he rushed for that one and performed a low kick that took out one of its legs. Taking advantage of its weakness, he vaulted over it and planted both his feet into the chest of the next robot in line, forcing the whole group back, and in turn, separating them. With the enemies spread out in such a disorganized manner, Oliver wasted no time exploiting them. He finished them all with several lighting fast strikes. An elbow to the chest, followed by a hard yank of its head. A flurry of punches followed by a final, neck-snapping uppercut. A winding kick that was then followed up with a big crash as a repurposed baton was driven into its servos. Soon, the only one left was the crippled bot. Kneeling down next to it, the head module looked up at him, only to be smashed back down with a final finishing blow. The loud crack of the punch connecting signified the end of the sparring session.

"Done."

Weiss, who had been examining the whole thing, started to go into an inner mumble session. He was probably either coming up with tactics that they could all utilize or she was grumbling about the big mess Oliver had made, which was true, seeing as there was machinery strewn across the floor and oil splatters against the wall. This whole thing looks like a scene out of a mechanical slasher movie. And it did look a lot like a massacre had happened, Oliver noted, as he had spent the majority of his life on one big murder scene. Looking up, Weiss pressed some buttons on the console and the bots that could still walk, which were only four, got to their feet and staggered over to the dispenser racks. The other sixteen just stayed on the ground in puddles of their own oil. Fun. Turning to her teammate, Weiss spoke up.

"Okay, with all those moves in mind, we can start looking at possible team moves for you next time we're here. Anyways, we need to get Blake's notes copied down. Care to join us?" Weiss said.

"Nah, I'll do it later. You girls have fun with that. I have some other plans." Oliver replied, shaking his head.

"Suit yourself." And with that, Team RWBY filed out of the arena. All except for one. Ruby was still standing still, as if deep in thought. She barely moved and stood still like a statue. Walking over to his leader, he stood next to her.

"Something wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing really. It's just that I feel like I didn't really do anything. It was mostly Weiss and Yang. I was just wondering how I could do more next time." Ruby replied.

"Well, there's something we could do in the now." He said, to Ruby's confused look. "How about we come up with some cool team attacks right now? My plans can wait, but right now, we could get a head start on all that stuff."

Ruby smiled and started hopping around before dashing out into the centre of the arena.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's do it!" She said with a smile on her face. Ollie couldn't help but grin a bit too. Grabbing his rifle that he left at the side of the arena, he went out to meet her. Right now, his plans could wait. And so, the two began their training. They were at it for a good 4 hours before the bell rung for dinner.

* * *

 **Vale Underground - Robbo's Workshop.**

"So you're telling me the SigInt officer was on their coffee break while a million death monsters swarmed one of the biggest cities on Remnant?" The hacker asked, tapping away on his keyboard, as always.

"Yep. And the stupid thing was, that there were tons of other SigInt officers working at the same time. Wouldn't have killed them to have gone and get the others? I mean, it's not like they're gonna lose their pay if they take five minutes to get the dumbass who's taking a dump after eating too many of the communal Pizza Pockets." Ollie answered, hunched over a work table, busy repairing one of the gauntlets on his Mjolnir armour.

"Nah, they'd probably lose their jobs. They can't leave their posts unless they're ordered to or on break. Hell, they can't even take days off or have overtime." Robbo replied, taking a sip of whatever he had in his mug. Cold, four-day-old coffee. Nice.

"Really? I know the UNSC had tough standards, but this is even dumber."

"Yeah. From what I hear, your UNSC probably has better unionization than us. And we haven't engaged in ANY wars for the last 60 years."

The two of them shared some good-natured chuckles.

"But seriously though, you guys don't even get benefits?"

"And Spartans do?"

"Yeah, dude. Universal Healthcare for whenever we get shot, and hell, I know my buddy Ezra took advantage of the 401k."

"Damn."

The two continued their work. It was nice to be able to talk openly about his past with someone. He had told Roberto about his work with the UNSC and where he came from early on in their friendship, and thankfully, the guy hadn't freaked out _too_ much. Now, it was just a talking point for each other. No matter how many times Robbo brought it up, or something stupid happened in Remnant, they never could understand each other's respective worlds. They didn't care too much though. It was still funny. Over the course of the week, Ollie would come over to the workshop and the two friends would continue their friendly banter while the Spartan would continue working on his armour. Finally, one day, late at night, Oliver sprung up from the familiar workbench and gave out a triumphant yell. Falling off of his bunk, Robbo sleepily rose to his feet. Shambling over to his mug of coffee and taking a deep swig, he made his way over to his friend who was doing a little happy dance.

"What the hell are you shouting about? If you wanna be loud, then I'll just blow out your kneecaps with an acid round." He groaned. In response, Ollie simply showed him his finished left gauntlet. There was a faintly glowing circle sitting on the top of the hand with power conduits running down the length of the forearm section. They all ran to a small box on the end of the piece of armour.

"What is it?" He asked. Oliver responded with "Wait and see."

Grabbing a piece of Gravity Dust he put it in the box before fitting the gauntlet onto his arm.

"If everything goes well, then I won't end up a red stain on that wall." He said simply before tensing and extending his arm.

"Wait, what? Sto-" was all Robbo could get out before the glowing circle started to shine brightly and Ollie yanked his arm back towards him. He watched as the Spartan jetted forward at a high speed before hitting the ground and sliding all the way to the wall on the far side of the room.

"HAHAHAHAH! WOO!" He yelled, splayed out across the floor like a drunk uncle on Thanksgiving weekend. Getting to his feet, he dusted himself off and was grinning like a madman.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Robbo exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air.

"This right here is one of my greatest achievements. Ever. Of all time. What this does is inject a bit of Gravity Dust into the spinner, which I charge and, well, spin, really fast to agitate the Dust. I essentially switch around my gravity so I can move in other directions really fast. I can then control the direction in which I fly off in. So as long as I continue agitating the Dust, I can continue moving in my switched gravity. Pretty neat, right?" Oliver explained, showing off his new gadget. "I figured I would need a 'get out of jail free' card in case I get in a serious pinch, so something that would let me run on walls or just fly up out of there would be a good choice. The whole fiasco last week was a great example. If the Atlesians hadn't shown up, I would've died. No question. This is my answer to all of that."

The two just stood there and looked at the gauntlet for a little bit, until Robbo finally spoke up.

"So does it have a name?"

"After all of that, and that's seriously the first thing you ask?"

"Just wondering. I'm getting a 'Greg' vibe from it."

"Really? I'm really feeling 'Jeremy' for this one."

They burst out into laughter before they got back to their actual work, after that little break.

"Hey Robbo, put on some tunes, would you? I'm feeling some 'Days." Ollie said as he began to mesh some of the electronics of his armour back together.

"Demon or Danger?" Roberto asked, booting up his beloved desktop and picking up where he left off on his project.

"Danger."

"Sounds good."

* * *

 **Later.**

They settled on 'Painovoima' or 'Paino' for short because they thought it sounded badass. The device that changed gravity. After a lot of trial and error, Ollie was finally able to get the hang of on-the-go gravity shifts. Things from moving in different directions really fast to straight up walking up walls. The only main downside was that he couldn't use his left hand, as any let up on the agitation would cause the instant stoppage of any of his gravity changing escapades, which could prove very fatal if he was dodging enemy fire or climbing up a high structure. Of course, it's all irrelevant when you could walk up a literal goddamn wall.

While that was one major talking point, another big bit of news was the upcoming Vytal Festival. The big tournament was the talk of the town and students from all across the globe were making their way down to watch or even participate. This was no different for Team RWBY, who had been preparing for hours on end to tighten up their fighting style. Unfortunately, the judges on whatever board presided over this event had deemed all members added via the Praesidium Initiative were unable to participate, which was an obvious choice, as teams who fell under Praesidium's umbrella had a numbers advantage in a team fight. Nevertheless, Oliver continued to train with the girls in an attempt to prepare them for their next big test. However, none of them would ever know how dangerous this next test would be.

* * *

 **Okay, that's a wrap. I'm sorry for the long wait and everything. I've been really busy with school and the complete and utter destruction of my internet certainly didn't help. Seeing as this is an interlude of sorts, I'll be using this space to clear up some housekeeping issues that I would like to address before we move on with the story.**

 **Issue A: Romance.**

 **Let's be blunt here. No hard romance. And by hard romance, I mean not committing to any ships or couples. If there are some elements that need to be in there, so be it, but I won't be having any romances take the main stage. A good example of this are the two ships of Bumblebee and Black Sun. Both are key in Blake's, Sun's, and Yang's respective character development, and as such, I will be incorporating elements from both. I just won't show any favouritism or focus on one more than I need to. I know how… divided the RWBY shipping community is about these things and I wish to not be on the side of ire for any fans, so I'm just gonna remove myself from the problem. Of course, I'll also get shit for this anyways, but I don't care. At its heart, TPI is an action story, and I hope to keep it that way, and romance is just hard for me to write into a story about swords, scythes, and bigass hammers that are also guns. Hell, it's hard for me to write in general.**

 **Issue B: Power Scaling.**

 **RWBY's power scaling is an absolute mess, and I know others on this site have talked about it. RWBY is like JoJo in this sense. Characters have very inconsistent fighting abilities. I mean, come on. HOW THE HELL CAN PYRRHA LAST THAT LONG AGAINST A WOMAN WHO HAD JUST KILLED A FREAKING GOD?! I want to keep things consistent, so I will be making changes to canon if needed. Another thing about scaling is I don't want any character, canon or otherwise, to appear too overpowered. If this happens, I'll end up having to swap over to a villain of the week thing until I finally decide to blow Ollie's head off. So with this in mind, I managed to mentally settle on a good spot for Ollie to sit on in the power ladder. With the Paino, he should sit at around Qrow and Glynda level, as well as being able to hold his own against Maidens like Raven and Cinder. Notice how I said 'hold his own' instead of 'win.' Can he beat a literal demi-god? Hell no. At least, not alone. So his final spot, for now, would be on par with Qrow, Winter, Glynda and the like, above the students, and below the Maidens and Ozpin, for obvious reasons.**

 **Issue C: Update Schedules**

 **In order to not create disappointment, I will not give any set dates for my releasing of chapters. I release these when I have the time to write out a full chapter, and is also reliant on Psihopatul to edit them. Plus there are other factors in play such as personal issues or instances where we cannot work on the chapter because of unforeseen circumstances. Thankfully, no one has asked for a next chapter via review yet, but the first person who does ask for one will have their kneecaps removed and used as instruments for reversing your spine, got it?**

 **SIDE NOTE: I tried using the line breaks in Google Docs because I found out they existed. Do they work?**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading to the bottom, sorry for the wait, have fun. Listen to Mains & Monitors.**


	19. Chapter 19: Recede

**Between Apex Legends and school I've been pretty gassed lately. Anyways, we're kicking off the back half of this story now, and I'll be covering Volume 3. I'm hoping to get this to a comfortable amount of 30-ish chapters or around 100k+ words, which is the average length of a teen and young adult novel. That's my baseline plan.**

 **Also, my editor, Psihopatul, will be absent for a little bit as he needs to take care of some issues in his personal life. This means I'll probably hav mor speling erors than usual, o bear wit me.**

 **With all this out of the way, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

 **Vale Underground - Robbo's Workshop**

"SHIT!"

Oliver crashed into the wall at a high speed, the forces of gravity working against him.

"C'mon. You're almost there." His buddy, Roberto, said, spinning around on his chair to face his battered friend. It was another late night, with Oliver trying to perfect his technique with the Paino, his custom gravity manipulator.

"Easy for you to say, asshole. You're not the one throwing themselves into walls compounded by the speed of gravity." Ollie said, dusting himself off and stretching.

"Hey, at least it's only 8.7 metres per second instead of 9.8." Robbo retorted, spinning around and continuing his non-stop work. That was true, due to Remnant's slightly smaller diameter compared to Earth's, the force of gravity was lighter on this planet, making somewhat easier to pull off tricky maneuvers. It still hurts if you hit the ground though.

"Whatever. Got any leads on that magic chick and her lackeys? The boss wants this locked down." Oliver changed the subject, working his way over to the dim glows of the monitors. Robbo was digging through the cam archives as they spoke, searching for more facial matches to try and find a good place to set up a sting.

"I got a few hits." Came the reply, "I think you'll have more luck in the eastern quadrant of the city, try sector C-12. She's known to frequent that area."

"Sounds good. I'll do that tomorrow night. Now, if you'll excuse me. I have an appointment to attend to, so I have to sound professional." Ollie replied, taking off his helmet and running an armoured hand through his sweaty hair. "I have to get into full protocol mode."

"Why?" Robbo asked. When Ollie went into protocol mode, things were usually pretty serious.

"Visiting an Atlas prison ship. I get to interrogate that dirtbag Torchwick."

"Sounds fun. Give him a good smack for me."

"Ten-four."

They both chuckled. Snapping a loose salute, Ollie slipped his helmet back on and strolled out the door.

* * *

 **The Indomitable - Atlas Prison Ship**

In the aftermath of the attack on Vale city centre, recovery teams were sent into the tunnels to retrieve any evidence, information, and most importantly, survivors. Digging through the rubble, they grabbed whatever they could, but they came across the jackpot in the cabin of the train. Roman Torchwick himself. They wasted no time slapping some binders on that son of a bitch and threw him on a stretcher before whisking him off to the brig of the Indomitable. So that's where Roman sat, in the dark cell, waiting for his interrogation. Soon enough there was a whirring noise, and the cell door opened. Two Atlesian Guards grabbed him roughly and led him out of the room. He bit back an urge to strike with a witty retort, as Roman knew he would probably be gagged or hit, maybe even both. They shoved him into another dimly lit room, this time with a single chair in the middle. Sitting him down and binding him to the chair, the two guards left and were replaced by one man. Adorned in bulky charcoal gray armour, the man moved with uncanny grace and smoothness, betraying the lumbering facade of his suit. On his left gauntlet, there was an attachment, with a bright blue circle on the top of his hand, matching the blue accents streaking across the separate parts of his armour. The most striking thing about him was his helmet. There appeared to be some kind of optical attachment on his forehead, but the biggest part of his ensemble was his visor. It was reflective, Roman could see his own face in it. It was then that he noticed his expression. It was not one of anger or defiance, but rather one of fear. And it was an expression he kept as he stared into that sky blue faceplate.

"Alright, let's get this out of the way. This could go two ways. You get back to your cell with your testicles intact and I get my information, that's option one. Option two has you broken on the floor and I still get my information. Got it?" The man said. Okay, it was a bad-cop type guy. Roman knew how to deal with bad-cops. That's when Roman recognized who this man was. It was that mercenary that had been causing him pain for the last couple years, even more so over the last few months after he had thwarted his plans time and time again, destroying countless assets and taking out scores of his men.

"It's you…"

"Yeah, it's me. And you're Roman Torchwick, the famous mogul of Vale and also the biggest f-boy Remnant has seen, yeah I know who you are." The man replied coolly. _Damn, so he's also a wisecracker? Who the hell is this asshole?_ Roman thought as he planned out his next move. He could say something, but he knew this guy was ruthless. But if he gave out his info, then the Mistress would kill him without a doubt, or at least give him a good thrashing. Like it or not, it was in a vulnerable place right now, and the armoured man held the power position.

Looming over the criminal, Oliver knew he had the upper hand in negotiations right now. His large stature in armour, compounded with the fact that Torchwick was a total pushover when he didn't have the troops or gear to back up is usually extravagant talk. Grabbing the asshole by his dirtied business suit, he smirked with satisfaction behind his helmet as his charge gave a yelp. Clearing his throat, he spoke.

"Okay, I'm gonna start asking questions. Number one, give me the exact locations of all of your hideouts in Vale. And remember, you're still in custody. If you give me false info or info that's out of date, just know that I could have one of my boys up here to give a lecture on integrity. Or, I could do it myself." He said menacingly. Roman shakily shook his head. Standing back, Ollie cocked his fist back and threw a hard straight right into the guy's stomach. It was a love-tap by Spartan standards, but without Aura, it must've hurt like hell. It sunk right into his stomach cavity, striking the spot in-between his stomach, liver, and intestines. Coughing, Roman still shook his head, but it was clear he was giving in. Moving a table up next to the poor man, Ollie grabbed the mook's face and slammed it into the table. And again. And a third time, before slapping him across the face to snap him back to reality. Then using the Paino, Ollie shifted his gravity for a second, slamming a gravity-empowered fist right into Torchwick's face.

"Feel like talking now? Or do I get to decide which testicle you need less?" Roman shook his head frantically.

"I'll talk! I'll talk. Just get me a map and I'll mark down the locations I know of." He said in defeat, spitting out a glob of blood onto the floor.

"Good. I'll have a map brought in. As a reward, I'll shorten your waterboarding session by 10 minutes. Sound good?" Oliver watched in sadistic amusement as Torchwick's face dropped into a deeper expression of fear. Ah, sometimes it felt good to be the bad guy for once. Even if it went against most of his morals, he had to admit, this dirtbag deserved the thrashing he was about to give him.

Over the next few hours, Oliver beat the ever-loving crap out of Torchwick and gathered all the info he needed. Luckily for the criminal, his testicles were intact, and he was guided back to his cell. Climbing aboard the Bullhead that would take him back to Beacon, Oliver thought to himself. He knew what he had just done was wrong, and if he was to move on, this was something he would have to stop. But he also knew it was apart of the job, and things were going to get much worse before they got better.

"Hey, we're here, sir!" The pilot yelled from the cockpit, setting themselves down on the landing pad. The doors opened, and Ollie thanked the pilot before hopping out of the passenger hold and made his way up to Beacon Tower.

"Alright. Take care, buddy."

 **Later.**

Looking back on the interrogation, Ollie was still pretty conflicted on it. What he did was very morally gray, and while the mercenary and soldier in him accepted it as part of the job, the human in him who sought to change was still very much at odds with his more animalistic instincts. Doing stuff like this was harder than he would've liked. After fighting for a lifetime, he would have expected this to be easier, but he was sadly mistaken. So he just lay in his hammock and thought to himself, staring at the ceiling. He was never one to bury himself in self-loathing, but tonight was one of those rare nights that he really just hated the stuff he did. This wasn't the only thing he had ever regretted.

* * *

 **Many Years Ago - The Shamrock - Rebel Frigate**

" _Who is this guy? He's tearing through our ran- GRENADE!"_

 _That was the last transmission to come out of the guards stationed on Deck 12 as a loud explosion sounded and the line went dead. The bridge crew was in total disarray as the mysterious attacker had entered through the hanger via a Pelican before completely decimating any and all security sent to deal with him. Even worse, the intruder had disabled all communication arrays, so The Shamrock had no way of communicating their situation with the rest of the fleet. The mission of this fleet was to attack and take the colony of Luna from the Inner Colonies, thus striking a hard blow to the UNSC and securing the Insurrection's rule over the outer systems and crippling morale. This was supposed to be a covert operation, but evidently, this was not the case. And so, Captain Hideo was livid._

" _Will one of you imbeciles go down there and see what's going on?!" He yelled, sweat pouring down his brow. His bridge crew was getting antsy, and with the whole fleet refuelling and the Shamrock being on the lookout, this was truly the worst possible situation his ship could be in. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the two guards stationed on the bridge spun and trained their rifles on the doors. Slowly walked towards the entrance, the guards switched the safeties off on their MA3G rifles. There was a tense silence until there was a loud bang as the doors were blown wide open. A little gray canister rolled into the bridge and started to spew opaque gray smoke, reducing visibility to zero. The guards looked around in confusion until there was a signature 'pop' of a Magnum shot. As one man went down, the other started wildly shooting into the smoke. There was a gurgled choking sound as his bullets hit a target. Lowering his weapon as the smoke cleared, the lone guard observed his handiwork._

 _The Captain was dead._

 _And that was the last thing that crossed his mind when a bullet struck him in the back of the neck, killing him instantly. Stepping over the dead bodies and debris, a single warrior in gray armour made his way over to the terrified bridge crew. Shutting off his external mic, he began to relay the current situation._

" _Captain's down. One of his own men hosed him by mistake. Those MA3's aren't the most accurate. Both gunmen have been neutralized as well." Oliver A-019 of the UNSC reported in._

" _What about the bridge crew?" The Advisor on this mission responded._

" _All still aboard."_

" _They could still interfere."_

" _What should I do?" Ollie asked though he knew the answer._

" _Kill them."_

" _... Yes, sir." Raising his Magnum, the crew shrunk back in fear. Levelling his weapon at the first of the officers, a middle-aged woman working the navigation computers, he felt a tinge of hesitation. But, orders were orders. There was a deafening report and a splatter of blood. Shifting to the next target, who had gotten up and attempted to make a run for it, he pulled the trigger again and sent a slug right through the man's temple. The rest had tried to take cover, but it was useless. The whole ordeal was over in 2 minutes._

" _This is A-019. Targets are down. Moving on to Stage 3." He reported, reloading his Magnum and stowing it away on its spot at his hip. Moving over to the weapons terminal, he removed the limp body of the former weapons master and began to boot up the system. A moments later, and the shipboard A.I. gave him the confirmation he was waiting for._

" _MAC Cannon online. Power levels at 70%."_

 _Moving over to the navigational computer, Oliver input a series of coordinates that brought the massive cannon around to face the refuelling station that the other rebel ships were docked at._

" _MAC Cannon at 80%."_

 _Oliver hoped that whoever was onboard had made peace with themselves, and he also hoped that death would be swift. Out of all the ways to go, death by sudden trauma was better than death by vacuum._

" _MAC Cannon at 90%."_

 _The cannon was aimed. Everything was in position._

" _MAC Cannon fully charged. Ready for firing."_

 _Walking back to the weapons console, Oliver clicked a few switches, and the lights in the room went red. Without another moment's hesitation, he pressed the 'fire' button. There was a blinding flash, followed by a soundless cacophony of explosions. The Spartan looked on as the station erupted into a tragically beautiful series of fireballs. The Rebel ships that were docked broke free of the gas lines as they tilted and turned as fires and smoke blossomed along the sides of their chassis. As elegant as it was twisted. And yet, those who looked on couldn't tear their eyes away. As if a morbid sense of curiosity and terror had captured their consciousness and held their minds captive. And while Oliver felt sick to his stomach for the first time in a long time, he couldn't look away from his handiwork. He couldn't tear away. He couldn't let go._

* * *

 **Present Day.**

That was only one instance that Oliver had regretted throughout his years as a killer and soldier. He knew that every time he was dropped into a new situation, he understood that there was a high possibility of there being someone dead at the end of it all. Twisted as that was, it was sadly true. Shoving those thoughts back into the dark recesses of his mind from which they came, Oliver slipped off of his hammock and grabbed his guitar, before walking right out to the roof of the building. Cliche, but it worked. Sitting down, he played for a little bit. To be perfectly honest, he forgot the name of the song he was playing, but it always made him feel a bit better about himself when the strings sounded _just_ right. Everything in this world had left him tired. A little bit of real alone time was all he really needed. Everything just seemed a little bit better. Just a little bit.

Over the next few days, the Vytal Festival started to kick into full swing as men and women from all walks of life took the time to wander the fairgrounds and to explore what attractions the whole place had to offer. But of course, the greatest spectacle was perhaps the Atlesian Warships arriving in the airspace above Vale and the massive flying arena that had been dragged into the space above Beacon. Qrow got into a scuffle with an old associate (Oliver wasn't too clear on the terms of it all, but it looked like the old bird was drunk again), some more exchange students arrived, and things were going pretty good. However, the biggest highlight for all the students was the fact that the big fighting tournament was just around the corner, and team training was in full swing. Every team from CVFY to JNPR were out and about preparing themselves physically and mentally for the grand show. Seeing as he had nothing better to do, Ollie decided to help the other teams with training as he himself really had no reason to train himself as he couldn't actually participate. He was currently working with his disciples and recent new friends, Team CRDL. After a few sessions with the former bullies, they appeared to have a change of heart of sorts. They really didn't goof off in class or in the halls anymore, mainly because they saw the importance of what they were training to do. There was always stronger than you, so you had to work to get better. That was the mindset that Cardin and his team lived by, and working with Ollie would be the best way to improve on their skills.

"Okay, fellas. Let's go ahead a start with some easy stuff. 20 Laps, then 50 pushups and situps. We'll be moving into cohesion work and multi-weapon training today, so let's get to it. You guys are getting better, I can see it. We just need a little bit more and you'll all be at the top of your game for the big tourney." Oliver said as the boys took off on their warmup. They finished everything in 20 minutes. Record time. Near-Spartan time, in fact. Moving into their cohesion training, the team moved like a well-oiled machine, tearing through the Atlesian Knights Ollie deployed. Smirking, Ollie thought about his training with the others in Alpha Company. To be honest, their origins and CRDL's weren't that different.

" _I SWEAR TO GOD IF ONE OF YOU MAKES ANOTHER STUPID DICK JOKE I AM STABBING YOU WITH THIS SNIPER RIFLE!"_

" _And for the record, mine is as big as that."_

" _ARGH!"_

" _You flank left, and I flank right because I'm always right. Wagner, you cover the middle 'cause I can at least trust you with that."_

" _Yeah… thanks."_

Those were the days… And to think that all teams start out that way. Back in the first team-building exercise, CRDL had barely made it through.

" _Watch out!"_

" _Cover your ass, Lark!"_

" _Bronzewing, move you bastard!"_

" _Shaddup ya hunk of lard!"_

It was a pretty easy thing to say that they had moved along really nicely.

"AGH! ONE MORE MISSTEP AND I REVERSE YOUR SPINE, RUSS!"

…They still had some work ahead of them.

But all of these hijinks aside, one thing troubled Oliver quite a bit. The whole Vytal Festival thing was a security disaster waiting to happen. There was a lot riding on this event, and all it would take is one small slip-up and the whole travesty would end up on national television… or whatever they called it here. If they did one thing wrong, then everything could be over just like that, in more way than one. This was no longer just a terrorist hunt or magical crackdown. Politics was here and politics is a real bitch. Long story short, this was a prime time for the intruders to make their move. Not only would it strain morale and deal a serious blow to the kingdoms, but it would also stress political relations as citizens of other kingdoms had been injured or killed on Vale soil, resulting in a total collapse of a ceasefire that had kept civilization here afloat for so long. But… now wasn't the time to think about this. The guys were finished with the drones and they were already moving on to training with each other's weapons. Watching his trainees, Ollie leaned up against a wall near the door, when he heard the doors open. He expected it to be his team or another group of students, but surprisingly, it was only one person. The closest person this school had to a Spartan. Pyrrha Nikos. She looked strangely uneasy. Looking over at the training boys, then at Oliver, she made her way over to him.

"Hello, Mr. Auburn." She said.

"Hey, Pyrrha. And you don't need to bother with any of the formalities. We might not be on the same team, but all these formalities really just annoy me more than anything." Oliver responded.

"I see. So Oliver would be fine?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oliver or Ollie. I'm fine with both."

The two of them continued to observe CRDL as they moved on with their workout.

"So what brings you here?" Oliver decided to start the conversation.

"I have… a favour to ask of you." She said, almost timidly, as if she wasn't used to this.

"What is it?"

"I want you to help train me." She said with conviction as clear as day.

"Really? Because he seems to me that you don't really need it." Oliver said, surprised. Out of everyone in the school he had expected to come to him for combat help, he had least of all suspected Pyrrha Nikos. She was a tournament fighter and a damn good one at that. She had over a dozen titles to her name and had won her first event at the young age of 11. So why would she need his help?

"I know it's awfully unusual for someone like me to be asking for life, but I would like some training in your fighting style. Your style of fighting is very… unorthodox to say the least and after witnessing the attack on Vale a few days ago, I feel like I have to up my game and adapt to this new situation. If something like that happens again, I'll be ready." She said, a determined look in her eyes. Thinking about it, Oliver realized that it wouldn't be a bad idea to train Pyrrha. She was one of the few students here, and the only one in the first year, that could match him blow for blow. She would catch on quickly, without a doubt. It was a no-brainer really.

"I'll do it. In fact, after these guys are done, we can start." Oliver said.

"Really? Thank you so much." Pyrrha said quickly. As Team CRDL finished up and Oliver congratulated them on another great session, the two quickly took to the arena floor.

"Alright, they call you a Spartan? Let's see what you've got."

* * *

 **Sorry if the wait was longer than anticipated. I lied when I said ONLY Apex Legends and school was taking up my time. Me trying to play Cagayake Girls from K-On! Has also been taking up a lot of time as well. Compounded with horrible thing known as school deadlines, I've been pretty strapped for time. Really, the only things keeping me going are the songs Fuwa Fuwa Time and Mercy and best girls Raphtalia and Chika. Listen to Jordan Thornquest. Bye.**

 **Oh yeah, and big thanks to kpmh2001 for editing this chapter.**


	20. Chapter 20: Spark

**Okay, 20 chapters, and I haven't quite stopped yet. Looking good. I have some ideas for going forward, and I think it'll be fun to mess around with. So without further ado, let us begin.**

* * *

 **The Training Grounds - Beacon Academy**

Circling each other in a fighter's fashion, Pyrrha Nikos and Oliver Auburn stared each other down. Letting her hands drop to her sides, Pyrrha jerked them down once, and her sword and shield flew down from their spots on her back and into her hands. Stepping back into a guard stance, Ollie smirked under his tinted visor before slipping into his starting position.

"Your move." He said. "Let's see what you got."

Nodding, Pyrrha twirled her Xiphos around in a flourishing salute before leaping forward with practiced grace. Reaching outwards with her shield, she used her semblance to carry herself forward and lashed out with her sword. Hopping backwards, Ollie felt the displacement of air between himself and the blade. It was a swing and a miss, but Pyrrha was an experienced fighter, so it wouldn't faze her. Deciding that going easy on her or staying back would only result in open defeat, Oliver decided to take this window and press the offensive. Shifting his stance again, he lunged forward and cocked his left fist back. Pyrrha, of course, saw this, but she knew that he was too much of a veteran to be making such an amateur attack like that. A full body lunge would leave a fighter too exposed. So she raised her shield up to block his strike, but instead of feeling the clang of fist against plate metal, she instead felt a tugging sensation. Ollie had grabbed on to the side of her shield and was pulling himself under it, sticking his foot out in a low kick. Leaping over, Pyrrha tucked and rolled through the air and changed her sword into its rifle form. Taking aim, she fired a quick burst.

 _POW POW POW_

The shots rang out and Oliver expertly dodged with practiced finesse. Landing as gracefully as she had flipped, Pyrrha took a knee and fired several more shots, and though Oliver tried to dodge, he wasn't superhuman to a full extent, and some of the bullets hit home.

"Not bad, not bad, I think it's time we kicked this into high gear." He said, grabbing his pistol from its familiar spot on his hip. Charging forwards, Ollie zigged where Pyrrha expected him to zag and utilized his increased speed and enhancements to his advantage. Ducking to the left and rolling to the right, he came upon a blank spot as Pyrrha tried to track the fast-moving soldier. Bringing his pistol to bear, he squeezed the trigger once. _Bang_. The gun kicked back and there was a crackling noise as the shot went right into his opponent's side. Wincing in pain and letting out a little grunt, Pyrrha brought her rifle around and leaped forward while transforming it into a spear. Hurling it at full force, the weapon embedded itself into the ground next to the Spartan, who wove his way around it. Seeing as Plan A had gone awry, she went straight to Plan B by raising her shield for a full-force slam, which Oliver met with his fist. He had known that she would try to use her spear from the moment she had jumped, so he was prepared to dodge. Abiding by Newton's Laws, she would have carried on a set trajectory once her weapon was gone, so, armed with this knowledge, he had settled on a swift punch to the face. Evidently, she had thought of this as well.

Here were two fighters at the top of their level, acting off of nothing but skill and instinct. Off to the side, Team CRDL watched in awe as the two best solo fighters in their school duked it out on the floor. Everything here was a coin toss, you never knew who would come out on top. Unless, of course, you had been trained by a protege of Dr. Catherine Halsey. Coming into this fight, Ollie had come up with a plan to win this fight. While most of this fight was based on reaction time, everything could be predicted. It was much like chess, in the sense that one would have to take an opponent's moves and pieces into consideration before making a play, as one small mistake could cost you an important piece, or even an entire game. This could be played both ways, as you could quickly turn the tables on an opponent by forcing them to make a rash or uncalculated move. The Spartan IIs had gone through much of the same training to get them into the thought process, but this had been taken a lot more seriously for the Spartan IIIs by their trainer, Kurt Ambrose, and his colleagues. Everything from body language to breathing speed to the weapons they used, Ollie and his comrades learned it all. Of course, nothing was set in stone. There was always a small margin for error, and they had covered how to deal with that too.

Which was why Ollie had resolved to finish it with his next attack. Shrink that margin for error down to the point of non-existence with a mighty blow.

Pyrrha was never one to keep idle, so she decided to press the offensive. Running forward, she unleashed a flurry of strikes with her sword before swapping to her spear and attempting to sweep his feet out from under him. Bobbing and weaving in between the attacks, Oliver saw his opening. Instead of jumping or backing up in order to dodge the final attack, he chose to lower himself to the ground, rolling forward and away from the attack. You see, he had analyzed Pyrrha's strategy from the get-go. She knew he would be able to dodge a high attack easier than a low attack, so she decided to go for a sweep while pressing the attack and forcing him into a corner. So, in turn, the person holding the power position here was the one on the attack. Getting up faster than he had gone down, he elbowed his opponent square in the back while sticking one of his feet in front of Pyrrha's, forcing her down. Taking the opportunity, he quickly grabbed one of her arms and pulled it behind her back and forcing his Magnum against the back of her head.

"Yield?"

"...Yield."

Standing back up, Oliver offered her his hand.

"Good fight, good fight. I can work with this."

"...Excuse me?"

Appearing to be deep in thought, Ollie quickly turned to face Pyrrha.

"There were several points during that fight where you could have won."

"What? How?"

Ok, this threw her for a loop. He had that whole fight in is control! How did she come remotely close to winning?

"The secret was in your footwork and your attack strategy. It was way too predictable. You're an analytical fighter. You find a weakness or a clear plan of attack and follow through with it, and fill the gaps in between advanced techniques. I'm like you as well, but when two fighters who use their brains go at it, it almost always ends in a stalemate. Which is what I want to train you on. Your fighting is very strong but very rigid. You need to work on branching out and working on performing moves that your enemy can't counter cleanly and take them by surprise. One thing that surprised me was that you didn't use your semblance much. Polarity, right?"

Pyrrha nodded.

"Then you could've pulled me in with it since I'm wearing full metal armour, or you could alter the path of your spear. Maybe even trip me up by attracting something heavy to me to weigh me down and get some strikes in. I wouldn't be expecting that." Oliver said a bit too eccentrically. "Bottom line is, we can't get by on skill and luck alone. We have to spice it up a little, so that's what we're working on. Maybe one day you can beat me." Though she couldn't see it, she was certain there was a smirk under his helmet. She returned it.

"All right, let's do it."

* * *

 **Later.**

"So I take it you've started to train Ms. Nikos. May I ask why?" Ozpin sat in his classic chair, speaking in his usual aloof tone, nursing his usual cup of coffee.

"She approached me with the intent to grow as a fighter. She wants to improve, and I want her to as well, considering the threats on the horizon." Ollie explained. "Besides, we have a lot on our plate as is, so we should probably start preparing all we can for these types of situations so we aren't spread too thin. The team's small, and that prevents leaks, but we can't be everywhere at once, so I figured she'd be a good fighter for these situations."

"I see. Well, I trust that you'll do a good job. How will you know if she's ready?" Ozpin asked.

"When she beats me." Was all he said. "Anyways, that's not why I'm here. We have some intel on a possible enemy safe house located here in C-12." He motioned to the area on the map. "Apparently our perpetrator has been frequenting the area a lot."

"I see. I take it you want to get on it as fast as possible?"

"Yes, sir. Although I may need some backup. I mean, I'm good, but if this safe house is as big as Intel makes it out to be, I'll need some support."

"Well it's good you're asking for help, something a lot of the people I've worked with over the years don't seem to understand. I believe James has a spare squad of troops in reserve. Will they do?" Ozpin replied, opening his console and looking through the roster. "Sgt. Richter Cryst's squad. Do they look up to it?" Flipping the screen around, Oliver took a look at their records. A pretty clean win rate, with minimal casualties. There was some shifting in their roster right before the arrival of Atlesian forces in Vale, but everything seemed to be fine in terms of skill. He recognized the young soldier Steff Cato who had helped him out during his defence of the choke point. There was one name that stood out to him here. _Alexander Nikos. Nikos? Is he related to Pyrrha? And his name isn't colour related?_ He thought. This would be an interesting team to work with, but they would definitely work for him.

"I'll take them. All I need is some basic fire support, and we don't even know if there's a confirmed safe house there anyway, just Intel." Oliver finally responded, looking up from the console. "I'm planning to do some recon tonight. If I find anything… incriminating, we'll call 'em in."

"Well, you have permission to perform this mission tonight, not that you needed it, of course, but stay safe. Report in afterwards the following morning, or else we will assume you MIA, got it?"

"Yeah, I got it. I'll talk with you later, sir." And with that, Oliver left the room, preparing for the upcoming mission.

* * *

 **Sector C-12, East Side District - Vale City**

"Simple stake-out, keep your eyes on the other entrance, I got this one," Oliver whispered into his radio as Robbo grunted in acknowledgment. "If you get anything on your end, give me a holler."

"Copy that. I'm hyped up on espressos right now, so I'm not going to bed until at least several hours from now." Roberto said quite eccentrically. Ollie could practically hear his shudders and spasms.

"Still on your Blizz recession?" The Spartan questioned, mouth melting into a frown.

"Yep. Yep yep yep yep yep yep yep yep."

"Just keep an eye on the door and cut the chatter."

Grabbing the Messenger off of his back, Ollie lay back in his nest atop one of the old abandoned buildings that dotted the industrial sectors. Cradling his rifle, he would peer through the scope every now and then to get a closer look at things, but there wasn't much to look at. The warehouse was mostly dark, but as the night went on it was evident there was some activity inside if the faint flickering of what appeared to be a screen was any indication of what was inside.

"Robbo, you have any idea on what's inside? Any cams?" He asked, looking through the window through his scope once more.

"Nothing. If there were I'd be in already. Either they're really good at masking the signatures, or there's just nothing inside." Came the reply, along with another sip of whatever drink he had in his mug.

"Dammit. Looks like we'll be doing this the old-fashioned way, up close and on display." He muttered before deftly dropping down to the ground and stalking towards the door. Grabbing his silenced pistol off of his hip, he looked for a suitable location to enter. Going in through the window would be too obvious, and the doors were too exposed. Ventilation ducts would be too risky since he was wearing armour that weighed about half a tonne, so that was out of the question. Looking up at the windows again, he saw that one of them was ajar.

"Hey, Robbo, if I can get a camera in through that window, do you think you can get me a possible entrance?" He asked through the radio.

"...Yeah, I should be able to get a good view of the inside. Do you have anything you could use?" Came the response, followed by some clattering of keyboards.

"Uh… I have my helmet."

"That's stupid."

"Hey, it'll do, right?"

"Fine. Just get it in there."

Clambering up the wall just enough so he could get a grip on the windowsill, he deftly dropped the helmet inside the warehouse, with it landing with a soft clunk on a shipping container. Grabbing his earpiece, he got back in contact with Robbo.

"Anything?" He asked.

"Nothing. And by nothing, I mean there's nothing in there but a flickering screen. Doesn't look like there's anyone inside." The hacker responded.

"Looks like I'm heading in then, right?"

"Yeah, just be careful. This place could be rigged to blow at any moment."

Taking note of this warning, Ollie leaped up to the window and pulled himself in, grabbing his Operator-class helmet and sliding back onto its familiar place on his head. Grabbing his pistol off his waist once more, he worked his way down to the ground quickly and quietly. Once actually on the ground level, the source of light they had seen from the outside had become much more apparent now. The cold glare of a computer screen was evident from where he was, but he couldn't tell if there was anybody in the room. Hugging the wall and activating his camouflage unit, he entered the room. Upon further inspection, there was no one in the room, which was odd as the screen was still on. _Ah, this is a trap. Better bug out._

Turning around and beginning to leave, there was suddenly a crackling before a transmission started to be played from the computer.

"Hello there, Mr. Auburn, glad to see you made it here." The voice was smooth, what some might call seductive if it wasn't for the evident murderous edge subtly lining it.

"Ah, motion sensors in the corners. Masked too. Probably should've seen that coming." Ollie sighed, uncloaking himself.

"Well, it's good to see somebody who's good on the uptake. At least there's someone out there who will prove to be a worthy opponent."

"Yeah, I think I could beat a flaming lingerie showcase most days of the week."

"And wit too~ I like this one."

"Oh no."

Making his way over to the computer screen, he was greeted by a familiar face.

"I don't believe I've formally introduced myself yet, how rude of me. I am Cinder Fall, an emissary of Salem and someone who's been itching to meet you properly, Mr. Auburn." Cinder said in a very lofty tone, her confident smirk plastered on her face. _I'm not sure I like where this is going._ Ollie thought.

"And why would you want to meet someone who would have no reservations about shooting you in the head the moment they laid eyes on you?" He replied.

"Oh dear, do you actually believe you could shoot me?" She shot back.

"I don't know, I consider my aim to be better than most." He retorted. " _Robbo, you getting this?"_ He whispered while cutting his external mic, and smirked when he received a grunt in return. " _Perfect."_

That was when noticed the telltale sign of that something was about to go horribly wrong. Cinder was grinning, not in a usual cocky manner, but in a fashion that befitted someone who knew that they were about to win.

"You know where to meet me, I know you're familiar with the area. I look forward to seeing you in the future, Mr. Auburn." She said sultrily before the feed cut out and there was the familiar tick of a timer. "Shit."

Dashing for the door, he heard a few more ticks before they drew out into one long beep. Cursing once more, he raised his pistol and with a few shots blew off the hinges of the big doors that lead into the warehouse before slamming right into them, knocking the large gates over. As he did that, the whole structure erupted into flames and smaller explosions. The shockwave hit him hard and knocked him to the ground. His shields flared before they broke as a large piece of debris pierced the energy field that surrounded him. For the third time in a short span of time since his enrollment at Beacon, he felt some bones break. _Dammit, I liked that rib!_ He forced himself to his feet and shook the shellshock from his head before calling Ozpin.

"Mr. Auburn? I take it you've finished your reconnaissance mission?" The headmaster asked.

"Yeah, but do you think you can schedule me a day off of classes? I have someone I have to talk to in person."

* * *

 **I'm really lazy, so I'm sorry this took so long. I had to manage my other pastimes consisting of my Epiphone Les Paul, Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, and several visual novels. Welp, have a good one folks.**


	21. Chapter 21: From the Room to the Rubble

**You ever just play guitar so long your fingers start to bleed so you have to bandage them and not write for a day while you sit on your ass trying your best to not scream in a furious rage that your only free time to write has been stolen away because of your stupidity? Yeah, happened to me too.**

* * *

"Man, I know the girls are our friends and all, but it feels good to just have the night to ourselves." Sitting on a pile of pillows on the ground, Jaune Arc of Team JNPR sank into his platform of relaxation even more while flipping through an issue of a comic book that Ollie couldn't quite remember the name of. The girls had promptly decided that tonight was a 'girls night' and had all gone out on the town, leaving the men of the two teams alone at the dorms. They had taken full advantage of the situation by enjoying the peace and quiet (discounting Ollie's soft guitar playing, which was emanating from his hammock attached to the ceiling.)

"You guys hungry yet?" Asked Lie Ren, the other man of JNPR, who was currently warming up his hotplate to warm up some leftovers from lunch for dinner. They didn't have many options for food, and they also didn't have much motivation to get out of the room just yet, so they decided to use what they had on hand.

"Eh, not really," Ollie replied, disinterestedly. He had been thinking about Cinder's proposition. He knew where she was implying to meet up. There was an area in the Underground that was cordoned off to everyone but the most equipped parties from the most established gangs. There was an unspoken rule to never go in there. It was an area on the outskirts of the eastside that was known as "Death's Domain" or simply "The Domain." Some time ago, the wall of the cavern on that side had caved in and several high-level Grimm were released. They began to multiply, so that area of town was quickly evacuated and sealed off from the rest of the Underground and placed under constant watch by the major organizations. No one was allowed in without the proper authorization, which only came from the bosses of said organizations. This meant the place never had more than one group roaming around at a time, and more often than not, none at all. This made it a very good place to meet with people in total privacy without fear of being watched. And while the Grimm patrolling the district were a threat, if you could get past the barrier surrounding the Domain, then you could probably evade the Grimm as well. Ollie had ventured in a few times, but he never really got a grasp of the geography of the place. Alas, now wasn't the time for second-guessing. The prospect of information was too great at this point, and if he could get the opportunity, maybe take out a high-ranking member of the opposite side.

 _Going alone is a death wish at this point, and Atlas doesn't need to know about the ins and outs of the Underground just yet._ He thought as he started to absentmindedly pick away at another riff. _Just going into the Domain is dangerous enough. But with Cinder's strange powers and possibly other enemies of her calibre, things won't end well._

"Oh yeah, Ollie?" Jaune asked, nursing a can of energy drink from his pile of pillows.

"What is it?"

"I've been meaning to ask you this, but why don't you have an Aura?" Huh, why _hasn't_ anyone asked this yet? Good thing Ollie had gotten himself tested on this before because otherwise even he wouldn't have known the answer. It was probably for the better.

* * *

 **Some time ago - Sammy's Super Syringes, Vale Underground**

" _An Aura awakening? Ya sure kid? Ya told me about those augmentation things ya got, and I'm not sure if those two things are supposed to mix." Asked a gruff, middle-aged man from behind a counter, going about his daily routine of cleaning his syringes._

" _Just give me a basic idea of what I'll get Sammy. I'll be the judge of whether I do it or not." Oliver Auburn replied, grabbing a roll of bandages off of one of the shelves and tossing it into a bag._ Sammy's _was his one-stop shop for all of his medical needs, and one of the only places in the underground he felt comfortable out of his armour. Most normal medical shops didn't have military-grade dressings sitting on the shelf next to the cough syrup. Those shops also don't have bliss-cooking vats in the back but that isn't what's important here._

" _Look, kid, mixing superpowers might not be the best idea. I ran that blood sample of yours through some tests by trying to awaken some little bits of soul energy inside," Sammy began._

" _And…?"_

" _Those chemicals you got inside o' ya? They started to bubble and boil before the blood evaporated." The 'doctor' finished, placing his tray of clean syringes on the far side of the counter. Sighing, he began again. "Even if the results are different inside of your body, we shouldn't run the risk of killing ya by burning ya to death from the inside out. Believe me, it's painful."_

" _And why would you know this?" Ollie asked, concerned for both his own health and the health of his doctor._

" _Some idiot decided to fill his bliss with fire dust."_

" _Ah."_

 _Walking over to the counter, he dropped the bag full of medical supplies onto the surface and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So no Aura?" He asked one final time,_

" _No Aura," Sammy confirmed. "Sorry, kid."_

" _Dang it."_

* * *

"Yeah… you know the whole debacle about the child soldier stuff?"

"The stuff that Ruby told us? Yeah."

"Truly horrible." Ren threw in his two cents from over by the hot plate.

"Yeah, but during the process, they experimented with different chemicals and augmentations in an attempt to create something along the line of a super-soldier."

"Not to be insensitive, that actually sounds pretty cool," Jaune interjected, his mind completely captured. "I mean, that's the stuff you only find in those old Sci-Fi novels or whatever."

"Yeah, pretty much. This was the more reliable version too. The previous group suffered some failures, but ours turned out better. Anyways, the chemicals they used don't exactly mix with whatever energy signatures used to awaken Aura. A buddy of mine tried a small scale experiment and apparently the mixture boiled so much it actually melted the beaker it was held in, so… yeah."

"Well, that sucks."

"Yeah. To be honest, me having super spirit powers along with my augmentations probably wouldn't have worked out well anyway. The thing about Aura is it runs on the strength of the soul, whereas most of my ability comes from practiced skill and strength of mind. Someone like me, who had never really bought into that stuff, and thus never trained for it, wouldn't have had a very strong Aura. At best, it could probably stop a single gunshot." Ollie finished.

"Cool, cool," Jaune said before looking up at the time. "Come on! We've been talking for forever, and it's only been half an hour!"

Looking at the clock himself, Ollie also saw that they had quite a bit of time to kill. That's when it hit him.

"Hey guys, wanna head out after dinner? I've got something to do and I need your help. It's pretty dangerous, but I think if the three of us watch each other's backs, we could pull it off." He asked in a nonchalant tone.

"What do you mean dangerous?" Asked a now curious Ren, "Is it even legal?"

"Oh yeah, it's legal. At least, I hope it is…"

"Doesn't exactly reassure me."

"Look, this isn't a one-man job. I understand if you don't want to do it, but the least you could do is keep a secret about this, ok? This is a very risky business and you guys are the only ones I can trust to keep tight-lipped about it."

"..."

"What's the job?" Jaune finally asked.

"There's somewhere I need to get inside on… official business. Once we get in, I'll need some backup. I'll tell you guys on the way, but if we want to do this, then get suited up and ready for a hot one, because we aren't leaving unscathed." Ollie explained.

"This seems pretty suspicious, but I'll trust you on this," Ren said, "If you need help, I'd be happy to lend you a hand."

"Same here, buddy. Us guys gotta stick together, right?" Jaune added. Ollie smirked.

"Alrighty then, let's get to work!" He said, leaping off of his hammock before he was stopped by one thing. It was past curfew time.

"Damn, we don't have a permission slip." He noted, taking a look at the time. "Looks like we'll have to do this off-the-grid."

"How do we do that?" Asked an apprehensive Jaune.

"Bud, you're talking to a veteran mercenary of two years, and while I've done things I'm not proud of, I know how to a lot of things really well. Getting past surveillance is one of them."

"Ah."

"Come on, let's go now. Security won't be as tight if we leave earlier."

"Yeah, let's."

"After dinner." Ren interjected.

"After dinner."

 **After dinner.**

Fully suited up in his Mjolnir armour, Ollie stood in his room configuring his active-camouflage kit when Jaune and Ren walked in, all suited up in their respective uniforms. With nods of acknowledgements from both of them, he shut off the lights and locked the door before he clambered out of the window. Activating the Paino, he adjusted himself so that he could walk on the side of the wall. Creeping down the vertical surface, he was lucky that these walls were sturdy because otherwise, his half a ton set of armour would've just plowed right through the side of the building. After a moment, a rope unfurled itself and extended all the way down to the ground, and Jaune and Ren quickly climbed down. Taking the rope with him to remove all evidence of their little escapade, Ollie quickly followed them. Motioning silently for the pair to follow him, they made their way unnoticed through the backstreets of Vale before they came across a familiar manhole cover. Slipping down into the dark tunnels, they wound their way through and eventually reached the large open cavern that is the Vale Underground.

"We'll make one stop before we head out," Ollie said simply before making his way towards the large shantytown. "And try not to stare too much."

Shrugging, the two boys followed him.

Following a familiar route down into a familiar neighbourhood, the group stood in front of a steel door at the end of an alleyway. A few swift knocks later, and they were greeted by a voice coming from the other side.

"Who's there?" Came the voice.

"It's me, Ollie."

"And how should I know it's you?"

"Because I'm the one with the half-a-ton set of power armour, dumbass."

"Fair point. Get inside."

Walking inside, they were met by a lanky individual wearing a well-worn white t-shirt and a pair of dirty glasses. He held a nasty-looking revolver in one hand and wore a headset around his neck.

"Alright, let's get to business." The man said, closing the door. "To the new guys, I'm Roberto, but Robbo is fine. I'm this idiot's partner-in-crime. The guy in the chair, you get me? Anyways, I assume you're both here to help him on his valiant quest to punch a witch in the face, so let's get down to the nitty-gritty."

So they went on to explain the situation. Cinder had contacted Ollie in that decrepit warehouse and they were to meet in the Domain. This was more than likely to be a trap, but it was a chance they couldn't pass up to either take out a high-end individual or obtain information. The only big challenge was getting in.

"The entirety of the sector is walled off and guarded to ensure that nothing happens. Our job is to get in, but that'll be hard to do if we get caught on a bad rotation. The good thing is, I have a couple inside men who can let you slip on through." Robbo said.

"Hold up, inside men? You never told me about this." Ollie said in surprise. "You don't usually plan for this type of shit, bud."

"Hey, it pays to have some guys on the inside, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but you'd probably make that money in an instant by just cracking their bank accounts." He shot back.

"It's about _investment,_ my man. Long-term stuff." Came the reply.

"Oh please, the only investment you have is in coffee." Ollie hit him with the retort. All the while, Jaune and Ren looked on. A collective sigh escaped their lips as they realized what this meeting had devolved into.

"Let's go guys. Robbo, give your boys a ring. We'll be down at the wall in 20." Oliver said, grabbing his helmet off the floor and slipping it on, before walking out, flanked by the two students. As the door shut behind him, Robbo went over to his desk. Sitting down, he quickly dialled a number on his Scroll.

"Hey, Jay? Gonna call in on that favour you, pal."

* * *

After being rescued by Oliver and Roberto, Jay was quickly indoctrinated into one of the local gangs in the Underground that Robbo had good relations with. As such, he was quickly put to work. As a former shooter with good accuracy, he was put on a rotating team of guards for the wall. Usually, he would walk up and down the length of the wall with his buds for a couple of hours, looking on both sides, take a smoke, then head back to base to relax before heading home. Today was not a normal day. Taking a drag of his cigarette, Jay looked out to his left, the outside, and saw what he was waiting for. A gray-armoured man followed by a boy in a green tunic and a blond boy with white armour. Nodding at them, he looked the other way and motioned to the fellow guards that he thought he saw some movement that way. They quickly turned around and rushed off in the opposite direction. Sighing, he turned around to see the three already on the wall.

"I'm really sticking my neck out here, fellas." He let out a puff of smoke. "Only this once, 'kay? Now go do your job. And you never saw any of this, got it?"

"Totally. Thanks a bunch, Jay." The armoured man said before leaping off and into the darkness of the Domain.

"Yeah, yeah," Jay muttered. He took another drag. "Don't get yourselves killed."

* * *

 **Present Day - The Domain, Vale Underground**

Weapons were drawn, eyes were peeled. Creeping along the abandoned side streets, Oliver, Jaune, and Ren worked their way through the ruins of a once populated shantytown.

"There was always a popular meet-up place here. It was near the garages on the east side. There are a lot of buildings over there, making it a great place to hide and meet up, or station snipers." Ollie said, hugging the wall as he made his way down the street. Without warning, he stopped, pulling the boys into a nearby shop. Outside, a Deathstalker crawled down the road where they were walking. It made some chittering sounds before turning around and moving in the opposite direction.

"You know, I'm starting to think this wasn't such a good idea." Jaune shakily commented.

"Well, we're in too deep now. Oliver, this person is nearby?" Ren asked.

"I don't know, but something tells me…" The Deathstalker reappeared and looked right into the store and into the three boy's eyes. "That she'll find us." Making a gesture with its pincers, the Deathstalker moved back down the road.

"I think it wants us to follow it." Oliver slowly rose from his place.

"Are you crazy? That thing's big enough to snap us in half!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Well it clearly isn't doing that right now, is it?" Ollie shot back, clutching his rifle. As if it would do him any good against this thing. It could probably take a rocket to the head and keep on swinging like it was nothing. Sighing, the two boys followed after him. After about 15 minutes of walking, they reached the end of the road. Scuttling to the far-side, the Deathstalker settled behind a woman in a tantalizing red dress with golden accents. Standing beside her were a girl with turquoise hair and a boy with silver hair and what appeared to be robotic legs. Floating beside him was a jellyfish-like Grimm, with spiked tentacles which Ollie only knew as a "Seer" from what little entries there were in the catalogues.

"Alright, what do you want?" Ollie said. Clean and clear, because as it stood, they were at a severe disadvantage. Even so, he let his finger slide inside of the trigger guard.

"Easy, we just want to talk." Cinder said in a smooth voice.

"Ok, and what do you want to talk about? Music? What's on TV?"

"A man with the courage to joke, even now. I respect that." Cinder smirked. "I want to talk about our current stance of the world."

"Ah, politics. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful."

Behind him, Jaune and Ren both wearily observed their location. As if on autopilot, they both reached for their weapons in case things got nasty. Jaune's hand rested on his sheath and Ren kept his hands behind his back, wrapping his fingers around the grips of his pistols.

"Well? You invited, so you start." Ollie said. "Why do you want us here?"

"Well, I expected you to come alone, but I see you are as smart as our reports say. Prior to your work here with Beacon, you were wanted on several counts of murder and assault, along with multiple charges of illegal business." Cinder started, gesturing to his friends and then to him.

"What does my past have to do with politics?"

"That's what we were getting to. As a man with a very… impressive track record, I have to admit that I was surprised when you decided to align yourself with that old geezer Ozpin as a 'protector of the realm' and even go along with his plans."

"Well, I am a man of many talents. I decided that I would try to do something meaningful with it."

There was a small moment of tense silence before Ollie started up again.

"Alright, I'll ask a question now. Seeing as you're pretty friendly with Grimm, I would guess you're with Salem, am I right?" He asked, adjusting his grip on his rifle.

"Right on the money. I assumed that you would guess that." Cinder confirmed.

On the sidelines, Jaune and Ren were having their own side conversation.

"Salem? The Queen of the Grimm? I thought she was just a legend!" Jaune whisper-shouted fidgeting slightly.

"Evidently not, as it seems she's been the one behind all of this," Ren replied, keeping his eyes on his surroundings. "It would be like her to remain in the shadows through all of this."

"*Sigh* We should've just gone to bed." Jaune sighed before returning his attention to the conversation at hand.

"And so, I have called you here to… negotiate the terms of your contract with Ozpin." Cinder said.

"I'm… not sure if that's how legality works, lady," Oliver replied, cocking his head to the side quizzically. "What does it matter anyway? The details don't matter here. I'm on this side, and you're on the other, therefore making you my enemy."

"And that's what we're here to discuss. Why are you working with someone like him, in a world that's done you no favours? There have been some rather… unsavoury circumstances that have occurred during your life here, and I wish to give you an opportunity."

"For what? A raise? Not interested lady." Ollie shot back.

"A chance to make real change." Came the response.

"And that is…?"

"Right now, you are a lackey. Someone doing the dangerous work for someone bigger than you. A pawn. If you seek to protect, then I can allow you to do so on your own terms. If you seek to rectify things in this world, then I can allow you to do so as well. All you need to do is join us. You don't even need to fight, all you need to do is give us everything you know." Cinder proposed, crossing her arms. "It's easy, and you will be allowed to carry out everything you've ever wanted to do. You'll have everything. Money, power, the ability to carry out whatever you wish." She smirked. "So?"

Loosening up a little bit, Ollie appeared to ponder this for a little bit. Behind Cinder, her compatriots appeared to be tensed up, waiting for his answer, as with Jaune and Ren. Eventually, the Spartan looked up to face Cinder.

"I can do… whatever?" He asked, letting his grip on his rifle go lax.

"Yes, whatever you want." Cinder said in return, smiling. The tension in the hair was thick like butter. The underground air was chilly, but the sheer amounts of aggression and apprehension were creating a sort of psychological friction that made them sweat. Finally, Ollie gave his final answer.

"Then be a dear, and hold still." Raising his rifle, he fired off a quick burst, directed right at her forehead. His shots fired straight and true and impacted her right on target. She stumbled back a little bit but didn't fall. Knowing that her Aura would've been up, Ollie proceeded to empty his entire magazine in her direction. About halfway through, it appeared she had used one of her latent Maiden abilities in the form of a shield, as the AP Rounds impacted and splashed harmlessly against the air around her. As he emptied the last of his bullets, Jaune and Ren saw this as their opening and quickly rushed forward to attack her. Sweeping in from the side, Ren released a spray of light-green Dust bullets at Cinder, who quickly shifted her shield to compensate for this new attacker.

She didn't see Jaune, though.

Coming in for a heavy-handed swing, the swordsman crashed his blade into her Aura with all his might, throwing her backwards. Coming in with a flurry of attacks, he forced Cinder to fall back some, but due to his close proximity and a two-pronged range assault, she was cornered. At least, she was. Letting loose the remainder of her power, she forced the two huntsmen-in-training back a few steps. Giving her the chance she needed. In a scream of rage, she threw a fireball right at Jaune, who raised his shield in a split-second panic. Taking the hit, he flew backwards at an extreme speed, skidding to a stop on his back behind Ollie.

Ren, noticing he was out of his depth, quickly jumped back, covering himself by spraying shots in the opposite direction.

"Alright fellas, this would be a good time to run!" Jaune yelled at his comrades, who both turned with him and ran, but not before Ollie primed and threw a grenade behind him, further annoying Cinder and showering them in rubble.

"Robbo, you get all that?" Ollie asked over the intercom.

"Heh, got it all." Came the response.

"Looks like that's a success. Let's book it."

But as the three ran from the scene, a deafening roar echoed throughout the cave and resonated through the buildings.

"SCRREEEEEEEEEEEE!" Looking behind them, Ollie could see the massive Deathstalker rushing towards them. Above them, Mercury and Emerald were also attempting to gain ground on them on the rooftops. Thinking on his feet, Ollie quickly moved to the buildings and activated the Paino. Gravity reversed and he quickly flew upwards. Several feet above the rooftops, he deactivated the contraption and grabbed a Dust grenade from his belt. As he reached the apex of his "fall", he pulled the pin and dropped it.

Sensing the danger, his pursuers leapt off of the rooftops and onto the road, giving up their high-ground. Seeing the advantage, Ollie positioned himself to land onto the roof under him. Luckily for him, the ceiling below him didn't shatter on impact, but his landing did leave a sizable crater on the structure. Sprinting along, it didn't take long for him to catch up with his compatriots.

"Oi, meet me at the next junction!" He yelled, to Ren's nod. Plodding to a halt on the roof of what appeared to be a corner store, Ollie quickly reloaded his rifle before taking aim once more. Peering through the scope of his BR55, he took aim at the big Deathstalker before taking the shot. With practiced precision, the three-shot burst found itself buried one of in the scorpion Grimm's eyes. Screaming in pain, the Deathstalker whirled around to face its assailant, only to find nothing but thin air. In reality, Ollie had simply activated his Active Camouflage and was moving to regroup with Ren and Jaune. Dashing along the high ground, quickly met up with his comrades.

"Starting to have second thoughts now?" He asked the pair, jumping down to meet them.

"Yeah, definitely," Jaune responded with obvious fatigue. "I honestly wish I had stayed in bed."

"Well, it's too late for that now, so let's get out of here." Said Ren, carrying a voice of reason.

"Agreed, we have what we came for, so let's go." The Spartan nodded his head, and the three ran down the road. Soon they approached the outer regions of the Domain. What they didn't expect, was Cinder.

"What the fuck? How did she get in front of us?" Ollie cursed. He was about to look behind him, but he didn't need to as he heard the skittering of eight boney legs at his back, followed by two thump sounds, which he would assume would be Emerald and Mercury. Gritting his teeth, he raised his rifle, with the two boys beside him taking the hint and raising theirs as well.

"Guys, take the opportunity to run. I'll hold them off for a bit." Ollie whispered to his friends, who both tentatively nodded. Like it or not, he was the only one who could keep up in a fight with them for now. It was best they all got out rather than throwing it all away in a suicide rush. Within the next 30 seconds, several actions took place.

First, Jaune and Ren took the opportunity presented to them and they rushed at what was the weakest link; Emerald and Mercury. Firing off a burst from his pistols, Ren was able to force the two to scatter and Jaune moved in front of his friend and blocked their incoming attacks with his shield, the bullets pinging harmlessly off of the defensive plating. Pushing through, the duo escaped down the side streets.

Second, Ollie decided to give his friends the cover they needed and proceeded to swap out his rifle for his SMGs and reverse his gravity, sending him "falling" straight up. Using his newfound elevation, he took aim with his twin weapons and opened fire, raining bullets down on his enemies. He was too far up to do any real damage, but the distraction tactic did its job as the two boys got away.

Third, Ollie directly followed up by altering his movement so when he inevitably fell, he would land right on the head of the Deathstalker with immense force. Which he did.

Fourth, Cinder made her move. Cocking back her arm, as if ready to throw a ball, she released a vial of Dust and hurled it at the Spartan who whirled around too late to find it exploding into a wall of flames. His shields flared and sparked before they gave way and the shockwave threw him into a nearby wall.

Fifth, in dying defiance, the Deathstalker staggered over to the fallen Spartan and slammed its claw right into his arms. Swinging over right in the nick of time, Ollie raised his arms up to block the Grimm's final offensive, and he could feel the strain of being struck by a gigantic claw. And damn, it hurt. Nothing broke, but he could tell he was in for some serious bruising. Gritting his teeth, he shoved the dying scorpion off of him and grabbed one of his combat knives. He then proceeded to drive it into the underbelly of the monster, giving it one last nudge off of this mortal coil. Needless to say, it tumbled right off. Target down.

Sixth, having regained their bearings after being pushed through, Emerald and Mercury had rearmed themselves and charged Ollie while he was still getting up, and therefore, were able to land a few hits. A kick to the gut sent Ollie crashing back down, and Emerald didn't let up on her assault either, as when he tried to stand up, he was met with a barrage of magnum Dust rounds. The bullets didn't have the piercing power to puncture his Mjolnir armour, but they did explode on impact, knocking the wind out of him and scorching the surface of his armour. The liquid crystal underneath bubbled and boiled as his suit attempted to control the temperature. Coughing blood onto the inside of his helmet, he could only attempt to block the relentless attacks.

As the attacks stopped Ollie maintained his defensive state and slowly rose to his feet, coughing and hacking. He clutched one arm around his body, feeling an area of pain on his left side. _More bruised ribs. Fun._ He thought morbidly as he readied himself for the next offensive. He was instead met by Cinder.

"I will give you one last chance, Oliver Auburn. Join us. Become powerful." She smiled.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to pass on that one." Activating the Paino one last time, he dropped back through the wall behind him and into the road out behind the house they were in. Ignoring the throbbing pain in his side, he sprinted down the road after his two comrades. With each step, a spear of pain shot through his body and it wasn't long before he was panting and biting his lip in order to not shout in agony with each step. Why didn't he just alter gravity to fly down the road? The Paino was dependant on Gravity Dust to function, and it used some up with each and every use. As a result, with how much he had been using it during that last fight, he was all out. He could vaguely hear the gunshots coming from behind him. Swerving to throw off his attacker's aim, he leapt off a nearby wall and rolled behind a pile of decrepit old crates and continued running. At this point, the closest point where he could safely activate his Active Camouflage and run was 3 blocks away, and that was more than enough time for his enemies to catch up. And with Cinder chasing him as well, that would be very soon. The best he could do was hope for the best. Bigger people have tried to kill him in the past (figuratively and literally). He wasn't going down so easily.

* * *

 **The Domain Border - Same Time**

Panting, Jaune and Ren had reached the wall and were hiding behind a pile of crates, waiting for Oliver to show up. It had been 5 minutes since they had hunkered down, and he had yet to appear.

"Where is he? You don't think they got him, did they?" Jaune nervously whispered to his friend, who merely shrugged.

"I don't know, but worrying won't help him," Ren muttered back. This statement was followed by a large explosion, which shattered the silence. Some of the guards up on the wall looked a little unnerved, but it was the norm for an overly large Grimm to destroy a building on its way from point A to point B, so they thought little of it. However, the two boys knew better.

"Dammit! I hate sitting around like this!" Jaune bitterly exclaimed. If only he were stronger! Then he could help hi-

"Then what do you propose we do?" Ren cut through his thoughts. "We either sit here and play it safe, or we go in and risk our lives and try to get something better out of it."

"Are those are only two options?"

"Well, is there anything else but fighting them?"

Thinking for a minute, Jaune responded. "Yeah, we can."

 **A few minutes later.**

"You want me to WHAT?" Jay exclaimed at the two students in front of him.

"Shhhh! Please, we only need three." Jaune pleaded with the guard, who shook his head.

"Sorry fellas, but I can't. The next audit's in a month and the Capos'll _flay_ us if anything's missing without reason. If three smoke grenades are 'missing' then they'll have our hides!" Jay fired back.

"Come on, there has to be something you can do!" Jaune pleaded once more. "If we don't get out there soon, Ollie's as good as dead!"

Gritting his teeth, Jay gave a reluctant sigh. "Fine. I'll put in a requisition for three smoke grenades. They'll be requested, then they'll disappear since they 'fell out of the bag' on the way to the location."

Jaune's face lit up. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Oi! You said it yourself! Be quiet. I'll grab the 'nades, so shut up!" Jay angrily said and left before returning a few minutes later with a disposable paper bag. Inside were three canisters.

With a nod, the two leapt off of the wall and back into the Domain.

"Those crazy kids… They're gonna get themselves killed one of these days." Jay muttered to himself. "Let's just hope that isn't anytime soon."

* * *

 **The Domain Sidestreets - Present Time**

Stumbling as a fireball blasted the spot by his heels, Ollie tried to avoid the deadly onslaught. Firing off a burst from one of his SMGs, he was quickly shown that he was heavily outgunned by the massive projectile of flame that was screaming towards him. Continuing to run, he kept trying to move towards the wall, but each time he tried, he would be routed by one of his three adversaries. Fighting would be pointless, and would only tire him out more than he already was. Seeing another threat, he slid under a veil of bullets from Emerald's revolvers, and then side-stepping a kick from Mercury and elbowed him in the back to throw him off balance. Ducking into an alleyway, he climbed up the side of one wall and then leapt up to the rooftop on the opposite side. But once he reached the top, he was greeted by Cinder herself.

"Look,*pant* I know women can be stingy on their periods, but *pant* this is pushing it, don't you think?" He remarked, his razor wit not leaving him in the face of death.

"Still making jokes, even on your deathbed. I applaud you." Cinder just gave her cocky smirk. She wasn't expecting him to be this much trouble. He had even scratched her with a surprise knife strike. Not that it mattered anyway. Another thing she wasn't expecting was Ren. Appearing out of nowhere, Ren and Jaune both proceeded to kick the now flat-footed Cinder, who tumbled off of the rooftop. Without a second thought, Jaune grabbed a paper bag and grabbed three canisters. He then pulled the pins on all three and chucked them down to the floor, where they exploded and released their contents. On the ground Cinder merely frowned with an annoyed tone. Did they really think a couple of paltry smoke grenades would really make a difference? Throwing another vial of dust, they hardened into shards of ice and were sent downrange… and found nothing but air and stone. Looking around, Cinder didn't see any traces of them on the rooftop or around it. Chuckling to herself, she turned and left. They would be allowed to live this time. But only today. The next would they meet, mercy would not be on her mind.

Now, one would expect the trio to have left the rooftop, but in all actuality, they had barely moved from their spot. They were all laid prone in the center of the roof and were all invisible, thanks to Ren's semblance. As Cinder turned her back and walked away, the three slowly crept back, and with Ren placing one hand on both of their shoulders, they sneakily made it out of the Domain and reappeared in a nearby alleyway. Beat and panting, the three looked amongst each other and laughed. Perhaps staring death in the eye was a changing experience.

"Sorry I dragged you into that guys. You shouldn't have needed to save my ass." Ollie said apologetically. "I got thirsty. None of this would've, or should've, for that matter, happened if I wasn't so cocky."

"What's done is done, dude. You said you got what you came for, right?" Jaune said.

"Yeah, but still…"

"At least we're alive. That's the good part." Ren interjected.

"But we can still agree we're never doing that again?" Jaune asked.

"Oh yes. Definitely."

"Never again. Nope. Nuh-uh."

* * *

 **Meanwhile - An Unknown Location**

Sitting atop her massive chair, Salem watched the whole ordeal through the lens of the Seer Grimm.

"Playing hard to get, are we now, Mr. Auburn?" Salem said to herself. "It will only be a matter of time. Soon the world will fall around you, the sky will rain fire, and you will realize how small you really are."

And so she took a sip of wine and laughed. This man was truly proving to be fun. Hard as nails men like him were always the most fun to break.

* * *

 **Something else I'm never doing again? Going on a break like that. For the love of all that's good I was gone for a while. The main problem was that I became really disenchanted with this story. I fell into a state of almost apathy concerning it because I felt like so much could've been done better but I'm in too deep for a rewrite at this point. The main point of my disappointment is Ollie. He really hasn't progressed as a character since the beginning of the story, and he really feels more like an SI at this point with me doing what I want with him. I'm gonna try to change that, and I'm going to get a lot more chances to do so as school's over to the year, so I can update a lot more regularly. But I really have no excuse for being lazy, do I? Looks like I have some catching up to do. Thanks for sticking by me, and I'll see you all in the next one.**


	22. Chapter 22: Send me out

**Ladies and babies…**

 **Little children, big children…**

 **And even the gentlemen…**

 **Yeah, I'm gonna cut to the chase and say it. I'm shutting this shitshow down. This story suffered from two critical flaws: Lack of planning, and loss of direction. I'm going to rectify that. Looking back on this work, I can say I'm honestly proud of what I've done here. But in the end, the cons outweigh the pros, and as one fellow put it, "It's literally a clusterfuck."**

 **I'm gonna try to change that. I'm gonna start working on a rewrite for this story that actually has a sense of direction. Ollie and the other characters will return, but with a fresh coat of paint, if you will. I feel like I have matured as an author. At least in terms of understanding my craft, and now, I'm hoping it'll show. The first iteration sucked because it didn't have a plan backing it, no roadmap, no brainstorming. This time around, I'm hoping to do things right, and finish this fight.**

 **Thanks for bearing with my bullshit. I'll see you in the next one.**

 **Healthcare.**


End file.
